A Typical Adventure for an Unlikely Character
by leah61909
Summary: Leah Brinks always felt trapped. So when given the chance to relive the adventure of the movie "Newsies" for herself, she accepts and brings her cousins with her. But what she gets is more than what she asked for. Rated T for violence and minor language.
1. Chapter 1: A Prologue of Sorts

** AN: This story is pretty much my first official fiction to be put up on. I had been toying with the idea for a while, and after giving it some more thought (and receiving the DVD as a Christmas gift from my wonderful aunt) I decided to go for it and see what happens. This is pretty much the movie with a few new characters. I'll do what I can to change the story a little, but I'm still keeping the songs because, quite frankly, they're just awesome and Newsies wouldn't be the same without them. I've already got it all written out, except for the epilogue. No worries; I promise that the epilogue will be finished in time, and I'll update this story once a week. Will this be a good story? The answer is up to you, the readers.  
**

** Disclaimer: Newsies is not mine. I only own the three new characters that appear in this chapter, as well as any others that likely sound unfamiliar.  
**

Chapter 1: A Prologue of Sorts

Time: June 22, 2012

"Leah!" Ginny Rudabaker moaned, trying not to yawn. "Do we have to go to bed now? We're not tired at all."

It was still early evening, the night before my brother's wedding. Our extended family was coming to town, and so things had been pretty hectic throughout the whole week. My parents were out with my aunt and uncle, as well as my brother's future in-laws. Jana, my future sister-in-law, had a surprise bridal shower for the evening, and my brother was out doing who-knows-what with his friends. I would have gone to the bridal shower, but Ginny and Charlie, my two little cousins, were somewhat shy around strangers and weren't really in the mood for adult conversations. And that was how I ended up at home, looking after them and enjoying being a part of their childhood.

"You know the rules, Ginny." I laughed. "You start getting ready for bed at nine, and it's in bed by nine-thirty. You can change and get ready down here; I'll bring down your pajamas and everything else you need. Charlie, go upstairs and change in that bathroom. Come on, you guys know the drill. The wedding is tomorrow, and your mother will skin me alive if you two fall asleep during the ceremony or the reception."

"Does this mean we get to sleep in?" Charlie Rudabaker asked hopefully on his way upstairs.

"Heck no." I laughed, following him up to the room they would be sharing. "I don't make the rules around here, I just follow them. Now go get dressed, I'll tell you guys a bedtime story of your choice if you're both good and ready for bed by then."

That did the trick, and it was one that my aunt should have thought of a long time ago. By the time nine-thirty rolled around, they were both on the twin beds in the guest room, looking at me a little too eagerly.

"My teeth and hair are brushed, Leah!" Ginny grinned.

"Story time! Story time!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Not so fast, you two." I laughed. "Charlie, open wide."

"Aw, Leah-"

"Come on, you know the drill. Besides, if you really did brush your teeth you wouldn't have anything to worry about from me."

With that said, Charlie's mouth practically popped as wide open as it could. I leaned in a little and sniffed his breath.

"Ah, bubblegum toothpaste." I grinned. "No scent like it."

I moved on to Ginny, who had her mouth open as well, and I took a sniff. Fresh as a mint.

"Your breath is fine, but your hair still needs a little work." I said, taking the comb from her bedside table. "I'll work with it while I tell the story. So what kind of story do you guys want to hear?"

"I want a love story!" Ginny said as I began to work with her hair.

"Ew, gross!" Charlie squirmed. "Too girly. Tell us a story about a millionaire!"

I chuckled, trying not to pull too hard as I combed through a few tangles.

"I have a better idea in mind, and I think you'll both enjoy the story."

And without further ado, I dived into a pg version of Pirates of the Caribbean (well, they were only eleven and nine, after all). I figured that it was a nice compromise; it involved an island covered in riches and the love affair between Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner. When I was done, they were a little sleepier than they were half an hour ago. This didn't stop them from chattering away.

"I wanna be like that Captain Barbossa." Ginny yawned as I gently tied her dirty-blonde hair into a loose ponytail. "Everyone's scared of him, they respect him, and he's the real leader of the pirates."

"I would've loved to be in Jack Sparrow's shoes when he and Barbossa made that deal." Charlie said dreamily. "Then I would keep the job and have all of the gold for myself."

"You need to start by getting arrested, being left on an island to die twice and having guns and swords pointed at you." I reminded him, pulling the covers over his shoulder.

Charlie gulped; he was easily scared for a nine-year-old boy, and the pirates ride in Disneyworld had him covering his eyes for a good duration of it.

"Night!"

I laughed, kissing his head before moving on to Ginny.

"Leah?" Ginny said to me as I tucked her under her covers. "How come Elizabeth agreed to marry Norrington at first?"

"Well, she was desperate." I explained. "Will was Elizabeth's childhood friend, and I think that, while she didn't know it then, she was in love with him just as much as he was in love with her. Elizabeth just wanted to do whatever she had to in order to convince her father and the commodore to go rescue Will."

"An old childhood friend…" Ginny murmured. "Do you have one like that who loves you?"

"Well…I don't really have any childhood friends who were boys. I was kind of shy as a child."

This much was actually true; my family enjoyed meeting with friends of the family who had children, but these other children were all boys and therefore ignored me for the most part, preferring to play with my brother. I'd say that the closest thing I had to a childhood friend was Joey, a guy that I had started going to school with in seventh grade, and we hadn't started getting to know each other until my senior year in high school. Oh, Joey…

"Good night, you two." I whispered, kissing Ginny's head. "Tomorrow's going to be a big day for Peter and Jana, and we're going to be very supportive and happy for them."

Closing the bedroom door behind me, I meandered through the living room and sat down at the piano bench, playing my favorite song.

"_Santa Fe, my old friend, I can't spend my whole life hiding. You're the only light that's guiding me today…"_

I thought back to when I taught myself to play this song, thinking of Jack Kelly from _Newsies_. I had only seen the movie once in high school at a friend's house, but two things about it had stuck out to me the most. One of them was this song. When I heard it, I thought it was so good that I bought it on iTunes and taught myself how to play it on the piano. I found that I could sympathize with the character through this song; we were both living provincial lives and wanted out. The story's ending was the second thing that stayed in my mind. He had a chance to escape his provincial life and go to Santa Fe-in style, no less!-but he didn't. What was it that made him decide to stay in Manhattan? Was it just his love for Sarah?

I sighed. Love. One of the concepts that had kept me imprisoned in my own home city for years. As I sang the last verse, I silently wished that I had the courage that he did.

"_Will you keep a candle burning? Will you help me find my way? You're my chance to break free, and who knows when my next one will be? Santa Fe, wait for me…_"

I was broken out of my thoughts when the Tornado Warning wailed through the dark streets of the neighborhood. Not even three seconds later, my two cousins started screaming and running back down the stairs.

"Leah!" Charlie wailed, running to me and nearly knocking me over.

"All right you two, let's head downstairs!" I shouted over the sound.

Taking a flashlight with me, I led the two down into the basement. With this kind of storm, there was no assurance that the storm would leave the electricity alone.

Five minutes passed, and Charlie was still shaking. I wasn't sure of how we would know that it would be safe to go back upstairs; I had never experienced a tornado so close to home until now. Charlie and Ginny had, but they were only babies at the time.

"Why don't we play a game, or something?" I suggested. "It may be a while until the storm is over. Besides, it'll take our minds off of what's going on."

"But what if the tornado makes the whole house come crashing down on us?" Charlie asked frightfully.

"Momentai, Charlie." I said, using a Chinese word that I had learned from a friend of a friend. "That's why we go down into the ground during a tornado warning; if a tornado does come, it can't hurt us down here."

"What about our toys?" Ginny asked. "Won't everything be destroyed upstairs?"

"Well…" I started carefully, unsure that 'momentai' could get me out of this one. "At least we'll be alive."

Ginny rolled her eyes. Sometimes, I wonder exactly how much I'm rubbing off on my cousin. "Just get a game out already; I'm bored, and Charlie's getting awfully close to wetting his pants."

"I am not!" He protested.

Rolling _my_ eyes at the pet argument, I walked over to the closet where the games were _supposed_ to be. But the sight I met made me slam the door shut in alarm.

"Now _I'm_ close to wetting my pants." I muttered. "Ginny, just tell me I was just seeing things when I saw a sunny bustling city beyond the closet door."

"No, I saw it too." She said, growing excited. "Hey! This is almost just like _The Chronicles of Narnia_!"

"That can't be." Charlie said. "Magic isn't real…right?"

"Exactly." I supported him, holding my hands behind my back, pinching myself hard to make sure that this was all just a dream. And believe me, it hurt like the dickens.

"Let's go!" Ginny exclaimed. "Maybe we'll meet Aslan!"

"A lion in a city?" I said incredulously. "That's a sight to see every day."

"What? It happened in _Prince Caspian_, when Aslan was in Telmar when the Pevensies had to go home."

"I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming…" I repeated to myself over and over again.

"It would be better than waiting underneath a tornado." Charlie commented, taking Ginny's side. There was no way I was going to win this argument; when it came to my cousins, I was usually putty in their hands. At the same time, I was torn between two ideas here. On one hand, it was my job to keep my cousins safe. They were like the little siblings that I always wanted, too, so I was determined to keep my promise.

But on the other hand, I did have to admit that I was in the mood for a little adventure-I had been ever since we got _Peter Pan_ on video cassette, and I had started watching it faithfully at least five times every day. I doubted that Narnia was beyond that door, but there was definitely something there. Needless to say, the small childhood part of me won over every other excuse.

"Okay, alright." I finally said. "Just let me check on a few things."

"Like what?" Charlie asked me, forgetting that we were in the middle of a tornado warning.

"Well, if we're going to walk through the middle of a city in broad daylight, we can't be wandering out in the streets wearing pajamas." I explained, opening the door just a crack and peeking out. "People would probably arrest us for it."

Looking out, I saw that it was somewhere around the crack of dawn, and people were just starting to walk about the streets. I also saw that the people in the city weren't exactly…well, let's just say that it looked more like the 1800's without slaves.

"Do we even have any clothes down here?" Ginny asked. "We can't go upstairs to get any clothes."

Charlie shivered as she said this, remembering the fierce storm going on outside the house.

"Momentai, Charlie." I said again with a smile. "Follow me."

Keeping my flashlight, I led the kids into the laundry room. It wasn't just a place for dirty/clean laundry; it was also a place for old clothes that weren't being worn anymore. I wasn't sure of exactly why any of this was happening, but I had read enough stories and online fan fictions to know that we had to fit into the town if we wanted to find out why. So I managed to find two of my brother's old plaid, church shirts from when he was around their age. I couldn't find any pants from an older time, so for that I had to find a pile of clean laundry that my mother had-rather conveniently, I had to say-forgotten to bring upstairs. Charlie's church pants were there, so his outfit was set. I couldn't find anything for Ginny, however, so she had to settle for a pair of jeans. For me, I found my favorite plaid shirt and put it on, with a pair of jeans-I had skirts that I could use, but nothing short of a pants holocaust would make me wear skirts outside of a formal event. I was relieved when I found the wallet that had gone missing about a year ago, along with some souvenir money left over from a vacation to California.

Finally, after taking turns changing in the laundry room, we were waiting to enter through the closet door. I handed my flashlight to Ginny, who turned it off and set it down on an old couch. At Charlie's request, we both held his hands so that he could remain calm in the dark.

"Okay, I gave in and we're going through." I said. "But keep in mind that not everything is going to be daisies and rainbows. There may be a few unexpected circumstances and surprises around every corner. And there's the slightest chance that someone might even get killed. So if either of you want to change your minds, now is the time to say so."

"I'm out." Charlie said automatically.

"Oh sure, then you can stay here in the dark and wonder if the house has been destroyed yet." Ginny said sarcastically.

I sent her a warning look that I know she couldn't see. I would have to talk to her later.

"What are we waiting for?" Charlie said automatically.

Without further argument, we stepped through the closet door and into the mysterious city.

* * *

**AN: Okay, that's the first chapter. I was a tad eager to really get into the plot, but now I feel as though the story was a little rushed. Constructive reviews would be awesome, and I'll update the story sometime next week.**

** By the way, if you didn't catch on, there's a reference to one of my favorite TV shows hidden throughout the story. I'll review and leave constructive criticism for every story for the writers who can guess the reference. Don't worry; it should be fairly easy to guess, but just in case here's a hint: check my profile under my list of favorite TV shows, and it should be there.**

** Also, you might be wondering what 'Momentai' is. It actually is a legit word, just in a different language. The explanation will come in a later chapter, so bear with me for now; your patience will be rewarded in time!**


	2. Chapter 2: How they met Cowboy

**AN: As promised, here's the next chapter. It has a little bit of the 'Carrying the Banner' song, but for reasons related to the plot I decided to relocate the song to another chapter. And several Newsie characters appear in the story so it should get a little more interesting (hopefully)**

**Disclaimer: I own Leah, Ginny and Charlie. Everything else belongs to Disney…and history, in some cases.**

Chapter Two: How they met Cowboy

Time: Mid-June, 1889

The sights that greeted us weren't exactly what we had expected them to be. We did expect the city, but the streets had filled with people by the time we had gone through the door. I looked behind us to see that the door had disappeared. The sun was blistering hot, telling me that the two worlds weren't too different. We walked farther into the city, just waiting for something to happen.

"I'm tired." Ginny complained. "Can we head back now?"

"Into that tornado?" Charlie asked. "No thanks!"

"Momentai, you two." I yawned. I had forgotten that none of us had slept a wink during the night. And I was in no mood to deal with their crankiness. "Come on, let's go find some place to rest for a while."

It took a while, but we finally found a statue in the middle of the city. The statue was just an old man with a beard and long hair sitting on a chair, and on the block of cement that he sat on was a plaque that had these words:

'Horace Greeley

Journalist & Publisher

"Go West Young Man"

1811-1872'

I had no idea of exactly who Horace Greeley was, but it looked like a nice place to rest. And to my relief, we did just that.

That is, until we were rudely interrupted by singing. Groaning and refraining from muttering words that would make my grandmother faint in shock, I rubbed my eyes before straining to see what all of the commotion was about. A group of boys ranging from my age to Charlie's were singing and walking up to a set of gates sitting not far away from the statue. It looked like an old distribution center for newspapers, but I wasn't exactly sure. This was when I realized something; we weren't actually far away from home at all. We were just in a different time period. I remembered a history lesson about newsies from high school, but I didn't really have all of the details.

"What are they doing?" Charlie yawned.

"I think they're getting ready to buy some newspapers." I answered. "We must be in a different time period."

"What makes you say that?" Ginny asked.

"Well, about a hundred years ago, there were these people called newsies." I explained. "Most people in the 21st century get their news from the papers that are delivered to their front door. But in New York in the late 19th century and going into the 20th century, the newsies would buy their papers from the distribution center-the place where the papers are made-and then they sell the papers to the people walking through the streets and sidewalks of the cities. That's how the kids made their living back then."

"Wouldn't their parents earn the money for them?" Charlie asked.

"Well, many of these kids didn't have parents." I said carefully, trying not to scare the kid too much. "And a lot of them were immigrants-people who had moved to America from a different country to make a better living. Instead of going to school, most of the kids needed jobs to help their families, for a few meager meals, or-if they were lucky-for a place to stay for a night."

"I'm glad that we're not im-im-" Charlie couldn't quite find the word that I had just explained.

"Immigrants?" I said.

"Yeah, that." He said. "Though it would be nice to get more money instead of going to school."

"Well, how about it?" I suggested. "I have a few dollars, but I'm not sure of how long we're going to be here or how long the money will last, so it wouldn't hurt to try and make more so that we could find some place to stay for a night-if need be."

"Let's go!" Ginny exclaimed, standing up to join the singing boys at the front.

"Ginny!"

Charlie and I strained to catch up with her. She was already in the back of the line, waiting patiently as the boys kept singing the song.

"Why are they singing?" Charlie asked.

I shrugged. "Not sure. You can ask when the song's done."

"Let us through, shrimps!" A low voice interrupted our conversation-pushing me and Charlie aside to get through the crowd.

The boys stopped singing, and the crowd at the gates seemed to make a semi circle around two dark figures that were looking at the boys, just begging for trouble. Both of them wore bowler hats, and one of them had a mustache that made him look like a villain. One of the newsies at the front seemed to be sniffing the air around him.

"Dear me!" He exclaimed in a somewhat Italian-and-New York accent, taking his hat off and waving it in front of his face in a joking manner. "What is that unpleasant aroma? I fear the sewer may have backed up during the night."

"Nah, too rotten to be the sewers." One of the younger boys said. This one was African-American…at least, I think he was also American. I couldn't be quite sure.

One of the older boys took up the next joke, and this one carried a crutch under his armpit. "It must be the Delancey brudders!" He said.

This caused a lot of laughing amongst the crowd of boys. I bent down to whisper into my cousins' ears.

"Just so you know, you shouldn't be making bad jokes about people like that." I said.

"Hiya boys!" The Italian said to the two dark figures, which I guessed were the Delancey brothers from what the boy with the crutch had said.

"In the back, you lousy little shrimp." The mustache-less Delancey growled to a plump and curly red-haired boy, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him to the ground.

"Um…maybe these two guys can be exceptions to that rule." I whispered before standing straight back up.

One of the older boys moved to help the boy on the ground back up, and when he did I couldn't help but notice that this character looked awfully familiar to me. He had dirty blonde hair-which actually was mostly dirty-framing the sides of his forehead, and unlike the other boys he had a red bandana tied around his neck and a black cowboy hat hanging on his back. After he helped the other boy back onto his feet, he turned to the mustache-less Delancey.

"You shouldn't call people lousy little shrimps, Oscar," he said in a voice so low that I had to strain my ears to hear what he was saying, "unless you're referring to the family resemblance in your brudda here."

The boys laughed and 'ooh-ed' at the cowboy's comment. It was hard to see who was more insulted, Oscar or his brother. The cowboy turned to the latter of the brothers.

"That's right, Morris." He said to him. "It's an insult. So's this-" The cowboy then proceeded to knock Morris's hat right off of his head, provoking both of the brothers into charging him. But the cowboy, being smart, dashed away and ran around the crowd of newsies, sliding underneath a cart and disappearing. Ginny and Charlie hurried over to the Horace Greeley statue to see what was going on, and I joined them so as not to lose track of them. The Delanceys ran into the cart looking for the cowboy-only to be kicked in the faces after the boy had swung out from underneath a tarp hanging from over the door of a bakery right behind the cart. As the Delanceys rubbed their faces, the cowboy swung down and kept running. I wasn't sure if he was just in the mood for annoying people, or if he wasn't really watching where he was going, but he then proceeded to run straight into me, knocking me into the statue.

"Holy maracas! What do you think you're doing?" I shouted, not even allowing him the chance to apologize. The boy looked as though he were about to answer, but the Delanceys had broken through the crowd again, looking for him.

"Runnin'!" He finally said, rushing past us without apologizing. I just looked after him in a bewildered manner, trying to figure out where I had seen him before…

"Heya, Miss-"

"Leah, look out!"

I was knocked to the ground by both of the Delancey brothers, who were still chasing the cowboy as the newsies resumed their singing.

_It's a fine life (Would you look at the headline)  
Carrying the banner through it all (You call that a headline?)  
A mighty fine life (I get better stories from the copper on the beat)  
Carrying the banner tough and tall (I was gonna start with twenty but a dozen'll be plenty)  
See the headline (Would you tell me how'm I ever gonna make ends meet)  
Newsies on a mission (Hitched it on a Trolley)  
Kill the competition (Meetcha Forty-Fourth and Second)  
Sell the next edition (Little Italy's a secret)  
What a fine life (Bleecker's further than I reckoned)  
Carrying the banner! (Go get 'em Cowboy!)_

_Go!_

That was when the gates finally opened. All of the boys rushed through the gates, refilling into a line. Rubbing my shoulder, I led my cousins towards the end of the line.

"Girls were newsies too, right?" Ginny asked. She was normally a brave child-a bit rash at times, even-but she was not too great with people she barely knew, especially if they were mad people like the Delancey brothers.

"Some, but very few." I whispered, pulling out an extra hair tie from around my wrist; I wasn't really sure of what had happened to the loose ponytail I had tied when getting her ready for bed. "I'll buy a couple of hats if they don't let us sell papers, but for now these will have to do. Besides, it's getting really hot outside."

Ginny turned around so that I could tie her hair into a perfectly high ponytail; she couldn't tie her hair up too high, and the hair tie would be useless if her hair was resting on her neck. When I finished, I tied my hair up into a ponytail and rushed to catch up to the newsies, who were congratulating the cowboy while the Delancey brothers passed them, wearing matching faces of loathing and anger.

The cowboy proceeded to rest his elbow on the counter by the bars of the distribution window.

"Oh Mr. Weasel." He said in a singsong voice, ringing the bell above his head.

"Alright, alright! Hold your horses! I'm coming, I'm coming." The man who opened the window was, um…interesting, to say the least. He was an extremely pot-bellied man, looking well on in his years. And he also had a rather large nose that stuck out far from the rest of his face. I wasn't quite sure of what to make of him, and I felt my stomach getting sick. He looked a bit stressed…and from a distance, it was hard to tell if he seemed understanding and friendly enough.

"So, didja miss me Weasel?" The cowboy asked him. "Huh, did you miss me?"

"I told ya a million times, the name's Weisel. Mr. Weisel to you. How many?" The man asked him.

The cowboy appeared to not have heard him; he was reading a newspaper that was sitting below the bars of the window. "Don't rush me; I'm perusing the merchandise Mr. Weasel." He said loudly, causing the boys to laugh. He skimmed through the front page and laid a few coins on the counter. "The usual."

"One hundred papes for the wise guy." Mr. Weisel said. Morris, who had appeared behind the window, slid a pile of newspapers under the bars, which the cowboy took before getting out of line and sitting down, continuing to read through the papers. "Next!"

The Italian newsies was next. "Morning your honor!" He said brightly, lighting a cigar. "Listen, do me a favor, spot me fifty papes? I got a hot tip in the fourth, you won't waste your money."

"It's a sure thing?" Mr. Weisel asked, slightly suspicious.

"Yeah." The Italian said. "Not like last time."

Mr. Weisel nodded, and I wasn't sure if he believed whatever the Italian newsie was talking about, but I wasn't counting on it. "Fifty papes for Racetrack! Next!"

The Italian, Racetrack, took his papers and sat down next to the cowboy.

"Papes?" Ginny whispered to me.

"I think it was a slang word for 'papers.'" I said to her.

The boy with the crutch was next. "Heya Mr. Weisel." He said, brightly and somewhat politely before putting in his order.

"Thirty papes for Crutchy! Next!" Mr. Weisel shouted.

I stopped paying attention to what was going on by the window, but I did notice the cowboy offering a boy around Ginny's age a seat next to him.

"Listen, why don't you and Charlie sit down somewhere?" I whispered to Ginny. "I'll order some papers and let you know when we're good to go."

Ginny looked pleased; I could tell that she thoroughly enjoyed the earlier display of mischief. She whispered something into her brother's ear before taking his hand and leading them over to the cowboy, Racetrack, and the younger boy. I kept my eyes on them as they introduced themselves to the newsies. I wasn't sure of whether or not the boys could be trusted, but for now we had to take our chances. I did make sure to keep my eyes covered by pretending to scratch my nose bridge when Charlie pointed over at me, causing the two older boys to look in my direction.

"Hey, you got your lousy papes, now beat it!"

I turned my attention back to the window to see what was going on. The boy in the front looked indignant, albeit somewhat flustered.

"I paid for twenty. I only got nineteen." He said. He didn't have a New York accent like the newsies did. I guess he was new in town. Maybe if I could…

"Are you accusing me of lying kid?" Mr. Weisel all but screamed through the bars, interrupting my train of thought.

Okay, now I understood why the cowboy called him Weasel. I gulped, and I knew that there would be a slim chance that he would sell papers to a female newsie.

"No." The boy said, trying to remain calm. "I just want my paper."

"He said beat it!" Morris growled.

"Leah!"

I looked down to see that Ginny and Chloe were back at my side. "It's okay, Cowboy said that we could join him to sell newspapers, he's willing to share!"

I breathed a small sigh of relief before turning my attention back to the window. Cowboy was by the boy, flipping through the meager pile of papers that had been given to the boy.

"No, it's nineteen." He finally said. "It's nineteen, but don't worry about it. It's an honest mistake. I mean, Morris here can't count to twenty with his shoes on."

This caused Morris to attempt to jump through the bars-or at least, that was what it looked like-as the boys behind laughed rather loudly.

"Hey Race, will ya spot me two bits?" Cowboy said to Racetrack. Racetrack pulled a few coins out of his pocket and tossed them to Cowboy, who caught them and turned back to the window. "Another fifty for my friend and for the family of three in back."

I breathed another sigh of relief as Cowboy beckoned for me and my cousins to join him, which we did gratefully.

"I don't want another fifty." The boy at the front protested.

"Sure you do." Cowboy said nonchalantly, shoving a bigger pile of newspapers into the boy's hands. "Every newsie wants more papes."

Cowboy made for the gate, with the boy following and protesting. The younger boy who had sat next to Racetrack earlier joined him, and my cousins and I followed close behind them.

"I don't." The boy was saying. "I don't want your papes. I don't take charity from anyone. I don't know you. I don't care to. Here are your papes."

"Cowboy." I finally spoke so that the newsies could hear me. "My cousins called him Cowboy."

Cowboy turned to talk to me. "Yeah, I'm called that and a lot of other things, including Jack Kelly, which is what me mudder called me. What do they call you newcomers?"

Jack Kelly? Holy maracas, we weren't in the past, we were in a movie!

**AN: I was tempted to go further with this chapter, but I figured that it was getting long enough and that this would be an appropriate place to end. I do believe that there's a chance that a reader or two might hate me for ending with a cliffhanger, but overall I'm somewhat pleased with how this chapter turned out. I'm doing my best to make the story a little more original, but with a movie like Newsies I see how hard it was; it really has its moments that deserve to be kept in the story. Anyways, reviews are nice!**


	3. Chapter 3: Selling Papes

**AN: I did promise another chapter, didn't I? Enjoy!**

** Disclaimer: I own no song, no place, and no character other than Leah, Ginny, and Charlie.**

Chapter Three: Selling Papes

Time: Mid-June, 1899

It took a while for me to get out of my shock, but thankfully I hadn't missed too much; just Ginny and Charlie introducing me before Jack Kelly-can you believe it?-turned to the younger boy.

"I'm Les, and this is my brother David." The boy motioned to the curly-haired brunette. "He's older."

"No kidding." Jack said to this, not even rolling his eyes at the somewhat obvious statement. "So how old are you three?"

"I'm nine," Charlie said, "and Ginny's eleven."

"Me?" Les said. "Near ten."

"Well, that's no good." Jack told them. "If anyone asks, you're all eight, seven and six. You see, younger sells more papes and if we're gonna be partners, we wanna be the best."

"Wait." David interrupted. "Who said anything about being partners?"

Jack turned to face David and me. "Well, you both owe me two bits right? Well, I'll consider that an investment. We sell together, we split thirty-thirty-forty, plus you get the benefit of observing me, no charge."

"You're getting the chance of a lifetime here, Davey." The boy with the crutch-I think the weasel called him Crutchy-said, looking up at both of us. "You learn from Jack, you learn from the best."

The other newsies made comments of agreement. By now, all of them had bought their papers.

"Well, if he's the best, then how come he needs me and Leah?" David asked.

There was a long moment of silence. I had to hand it to David; he really knew how to silence a rowdy group of boys.

"Listen, I don't need either of you, pal." Jack said finally. "But I ain't got a cute little brudder or cousins like Les, Ginger or Chuck here to front for me. With these kids' puss and my God-given talent, we could move a thousand papes a week. So what do you say, kids? You wanna sell papes with me?"

"Yeah!" All three kids said. Jack turned to me, and I had trouble trying not to gulp in excitement.

"So we got a deal?" He said, extending his hand out.

I shrugged, trying to keep my cool as I shook his hand. "Fine by me, so long as we can make a living."

"Wait. It's got to be at least even for the three of us." David said.

"Thirty-five/thirty-five/thirty, I forget the whole thing. Thirty's for you, and the doll and I get the thirty-five."

I rolled my eyes at the petty nickname, crossing my arms across my chest. David paused as the other boys made more statements of agreement. Finally, he held out his hand. Jack spat on his hand and reached for David, who pulled his arm away in an instant. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. Was Jack being somewhat of a womanizer when he refrained from spitting in my hand?

"What'sa matta?" Jack asked David, starting to grow impatient.

"That's disgusting!"

Jack reacted by laughing with the other newsies as we made our way through the streets.

"The name of the game is volume, Dave." Jack said to him. "You only took twenty papes. Why?"

David shrugged. "Bad headline."

"That's the first thing you gotta learn." Jack explained. "Headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes. You know, we're what holds this town together. Without newsies, nobody knows nothing."

Just then, a girl hurried out in front of us. The other newsies proceeded to take off their hats and make a few comments about her, causing her to quicken her pace.

"Oh, good grief." I muttered, pinching my nose bridge.

"Baby born with three heads!"

The group of newsies split into different groups. Jack led us to a boxing ring not very far from the distribution center, explaining a few things about selling newspapers to us as he sold a few along the way. According to him, it all had to do with how we shouted the headlines. Once we reached our destination, we split up and began shouting the headlines.

I didn't have a whole lot of luck. Ginny and Charlie ended up selling my papers, they were so good at being all 'cute and cuddly' as Jack instructed them to be. Once my pile had 'mysteriously disappeared', I joined David.

"Extra! Extra!" David shouted. "Trolley strike drags on!" It seemed like he was having just about as much luck as I had; slim to none.

"Extra! Extra! Ellis Island in flames!" Jack shouted, not far from where David and I were.

"Wait, where's that story?" I asked. I had skimmed through the headlines, but I wasn't familiar with that story.

"Thank you sir." Jack said to a man who had bought a paper. "Page nine. Thousands flee in panic! Thank you. Much obliged to you ladies."

I looked behind David's shoulder to take a look at the story…which was rather largely exaggerated.

'Trash Fire Next To Immigration Building Terrifies Seagulls'

But Jack was still rolling in coins with his embroidery of the paper. "Terrified flight of inferno! Thousands of lives at stake! Extra! Extra! Thank you sir. Extra! Extra!" He turned to Les, who had appeared behind him. "Hey, you start in the back like I told you? Okay, show me again."

Les started coughing weakly. "Buy me last pape, mista?" He asked in a weak voice, continuing to cough.

I thought his acting was bit wooden, but then again this was the late 1800's. Jack smiled widely, patting the boy on the shoulder.

"It's heartbreaking kid. Go get 'em."

Les disappeared into the crowd again, and when Jack straightened he was immediately confronted by David.

"My father taught us not to lie." He growled.

"Well, mine told me not to starve, so we both got an education." Jack shrugged.

"You're just making up things." David protested, holding up one of his papers. "All these headlines…"

"I don't do nothing the guys who write it don't do." Jack countered. "Anyway, it's not lying, it's just improving the truth little."

I leaned over to whisper to David as Jack sat down to watch the match. "I don't approve of it either, David, but think about it. Most kids who are newsies can't afford a place of their own, and many of them sleep out on the streets."

"Yeah, but-"

"Remember the story in the Bible about Rehab and the spies?" I interrupted. "Rehab kept them safe by not giving them the truth. But she had to lie to do so. Besides, I think these people are smart enough to realize that the truth was exaggerated once they actually do read the papers."

Les reappeared next to Jack, this time accompanied by my cousins, who had no papers in their hands by now. The last fact made me wish that I were a kid again, just so that I could have a little bit of dignity.

"The guy gave us a quarter each!" Les said excitedly. "Quick, give me some more last papers."

Jack obliged, but something smelled a little fishy…literally. David leaned towards his little brother and sniffed, wincing at whatever scent it was.

"You smell like beer." He said skeptically.

"Well, that's how we made the quarters." Les explained. "The guy bet me I wouldn't drink some, and Ginny and Charlie backed me up."

If Les was the only kid involved in that bit, I actually would've laughed. But I was disappointed in hearing that my cousins had tempted him to drink some. I really wanted to roll my eyes, but thankfully David did so for me.

Jack grinned before saying "Hey, no drinking or gambling on the job. It's bad for business."

"And what if somebody called the police on you?" I said. Something came to my mind, and I turned on my cousins. "Neither of you had any beer to drink, right?"

"Are you kidding? It smelled disgusting!" Ginny exclaimed.

"And yet you still tempted Les to do so." I scolded.

"Ah, don't worry about it, she was just trying to help him." Jack defended her.

This time, I actually _did_ roll my eyes before I turned to Charlie. But I didn't get the chance to ask anything, because Jack had grabbed my arm in a panic.

"Beat it! It's the bulls!" He shouted, dragging us through the ring and away from the match.

"All this over one sip of beer?" Les asked unbelievingly.

The policeman chased us through the streets, and into a building. We ran up the stairs and reached to the roof-a dead end. Or…so I thought. Without stopping for a second, Jack let go of my arm and jumped off the roof, leaving us alone. Just then, Jack's head popped up. None of us questioned, but we did join him just in time for the cop to start shouting again.

"Sullivan!" He shouted as we snuck away. "Wait till I get you back to the Refuge!"

Jack led us through the streets a little more, having grabbed my arm again. After a while, David stopped running altogether.

"I'm not running any further." He said, panting. I want some answers."

Jack shushed him, leading us into the building that we had stopped by. Jack let go of my arm again, and I rubbed at the spot. Charlie buried his face into my side, shivering.

"Who was he and why was he chasing you?" David asked. "And what is this Refuge?"

"And why did he look so creepy?" Charlie shivered into my side. I hadn't seen the man's face, but apparently my cousin had and didn't like it at all.

"The Refuge is a jail for kids." Jack explained. "That guy chasing me was Snyder, the warden."

"You were in jail?" Ginny asked. "Why?"

"Well, I was starving, so I stole some food." Jack answered simply.

"He called you Sullivan." I noted. Hey, I only saw the movie once and remembered only a handful of things about it. Cut me some slack!

"Well, my name's Kelly." The cowboy insisted. "Jack Kelly. You think I'm lying?"

"Well, you have a way of improving the truth." David pointed out. "Why was he chasing you?"

"'Cause I escaped."

"Oh boy!" Charlie exclaimed, his moment of fear forgotten completely. "How?"

"Well Chuck, this big shot gave me a ride out in his carriage."

"I bet it was the mayor." David rolled his eyes.

"No, Teddy Roosevelt. You ever heard of him?"

Teddy Roosevelt? _The_ Teddy Roosevelt, one of the Presidents of the United States?

I would've said those things out loud-and blown our cover in the process-if it weren't for another voice that didn't belong to any child, newsie, or even to any other person I had met so far.

**AN: As always, reviews are extremely helpful to all writers around the world, so do your part and help me!**

**One more thing: remember what I said about explaining what 'Momentai' meant? Well, the explanation is due to come in the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4: Santa Fe

** AN: I finally got to my favorite song! I'm so happy! =D I changed a few things to fit Leah's character and some of the things that she's had to deal with before she was brought into this story. Don't worry; all will become clear in time. I hope you enjoy!**

**On another note, I've completely finished writing this story! All of the documents are now uploaded onto my account, and I'm still planning to update weekly and work on other stories in the meantime. I'll be tweaking a few chapters here and there, but other than that it's completely finished =D  
**

** Disclaimer: I do not work for Disney (unfortunately), and I'm not getting paid by writing this story in any way whatsoever. Only three characters in this story are mine.**

Chapter Four: Santa Fe

Time: Mid-June, 1889

"What's going on there? Out! Out! Out!"

We turned to see a woman wearing a pink dress walking down the wooden stairs, using a feathery fan to try to shoo us out. She was wearing a skimpy, lavender dress, heavy makeup, and she also had curly red hair tied into a bun.

Jack didn't look worried, and so he just walked right up to her with a "You wouldn't kick me out without a kiss goodbye, wouldja Medda?"

The woman, Medda, smiled as her frown vanished almost instantly. "Oh Kelly." She said. "Where ya been, kid? Oh, I miss seeing you up in the balcony."

Jack held both of her hands in his and kissed them close to the knuckles. "Hanging on your every word." He seemed to remember his audience, and so he turned to us.

"So Medda," he said, pointing to each of us as he said our names. "This is David, Leah, Ginger, Chuck, and Les. And this is the greatest star of the vaudeville stage today, Miss Medda Larkson, the Swedish Meadowlark."

Medda, the smile not leaving her face, curtsied deeply. "Welcome, gentlemen, ladies." She said in a Swedish accent. It was at that point that Medda noticed Les and started fawning over him. "Oh, what do we have here? Oh, aren't you the cutest little thing that ever was? Yes you are."

I wasn't sure if Les liked the attention he was getting, but then he started coughing again as he held up one of our unsold newspapers. "Buy me last pape, lady?" I had to hand it to him, this bit was even better than his demonstration to Jack earlier. Medda seemed to think so, too.

"Oh, you are good. Oh yes, this kid is really good. Speaking as one professional to another, I'd say you have a great future."

Les smiled at her compliment. Charlie hid his face in my stomach again, beginning to shiver. Medda looked a little guilty.

"Oh, I beg your pardon, I didn't mean to say anything to-"

"Don't worry about it, Miss Larkson." I said apologetically. "Ginny and Charlie just aren't really used to people they aren't well acquainted with. That, and we had a little trouble with the refuge warden on the way here."

Jack saved the family then with his request. "So, is it alright if we stay here for a little while, Medda? Just until a little problem outside goes away."

"Sure, stay as long as you like. Toby, just give my guests whatever they want." She added to a passing clown, who had more sweets than I knew existed in the 21st century.

Neither of my cousins really liked clowns that much, so we joined them by Jack and David, who had gone by the ropes so that they could watch the performance. Les, on the other hand, filled his arms with at least three meals worth of sweets before he joined us.

* * *

Charlie and Ginny did get used to Medda after a while, and even thanked her themselves for her hospitality and promised to visit again. Even I couldn't help but smile; Medda was very nice, and from what Jack had said she always allowed the other newsies to have parties at Irving Hall-which was the name of the theater we had been at. While we were backstage, I had spent the time marveling at the mechanisms. I had been involved with backstage productions in my high school, and I missed it dearly. I actually considered the idea of asking Medda if I could work backstage for her performances, but I never got the chance. As we left the way we came, I made a mental note to do so tomorrow night.

"So, you like that?" Jack asked David. I bit back a laugh; any time Medda went farther downstage, David actually followed so that he could still see her. And when she moved upstage, he moved upstage as well.

"Oh, I loved that." David admitted, grinning rather widely. "I loved it. It was great. She is beautiful."

"She is a very nice woman." I agreed. "How do you know her, Jack?"

"She was a friend of me fadder's." Jack answered vaguely, sitting at a bench. The kids joined Jack by the bench, looking pretty bushed. David took his pocket watch out to look at the time.

"Oh, it's getting late." He groaned. "My parents are going to be worried. What about yours?"

"Nah, they're out west looking for a place to live, like this." Jack said, pulling out a brochure for Santa Fe and showing it to us. "See, that's Santa Fe, New Mexico. As soon as they find the right ranch, they're gonna send for me."

"Then you'll be a real cowboy." Charlie remarked.

"What about you, Leah?" David asked. "Would your parents be worried at all?"

Before I could answer, we heard loud crashes and shouting. We ran to the corner of the street to see a riot breaking out. A trolley was on fire, and not far from where we were a group of men were beating up another man. Charlie whimpered before hugging me again, shivering.

"Momentai, Charlie." I think. "It'll be okay, don't worry."

"Guys! Why don't we go to my place and divi up. You can meet my folks." David shouted.

Jack appeared not to have heard him. "It's the trolley strike. These couple of dumb-asses must not have joined or something." He remarked.

"Jack Kelly, watch your language around my cousins!" I snapped at him.

David noticed Charlie and looked worried. "Let's get out of here."

Again, Jack didn't seem to notice us. "So, maybe we'll get a good headline tomorrow, Dave. Look at this, he slept the whole way through it."

He chuckled at the sight of Les sleeping on the ground, pulling him to his feet and carrying him over his shoulder. That was when we made for David's place.

* * *

It took a while, but we finally made it to David's apartment. It was a meager place; it looked like a kitchen with a few beds and rocking chairs. A woman with light blond hair was at the stove when she looked at the sight of us. We must have been a sore sight, because the worry in her face seemed to escalate.

"My Gosh. What happened?" She asked.

"Nothing, mama." David reassured her. "He's just sleeping."

"We've been waiting dinner for you." David's father remarked. "Where have you been?"

Mr. Jacobs looked younger than Weasel, but he looked like a very kind man. He had a gray mustache, and one of his arms was in a cloth sling.

Instead of answering, David put a pile of coins on the table; the entire collection of our earnings put together.

His father looked at him, amazed. "You made all this selling newspapers?"

"Well, some of it belongs to Jack and Leah." David answered, starting to introduce us. "These are our selling partners, and our friends. Jack Kelly, Leah Brinks and her cousins Ginny and Charlie Rudabaker, my parents. And that's my sister, Sarah."

I remembered bits and pieces of Sarah. She was sitting in one of the rocking chairs, sewing lace. Sarah was a homely girl; she wore her hair down, but part of it was in a bun. Her blouse and long skirt were simple, but becoming for her. She looked up, smiled in greeting, and went back to work. It didn't escape my attention that Jack's eyes didn't leave her until David's father spoke up.

"Esther, maybe David's partners would like to join us for dinner. Why don't you add a little more water to the soup?" He added, kissing her cheek in a flirtatious way.

* * *

We were still talking after we finished the soup, while Sarah cleared the table. Les was fast asleep in one of the beds and out cold; a tornado would not shake him in the slightest. Ginny and Charlie were far too out of it to eat, so when Mrs. Jacobs offered for them to sleep for a while, they thanked her profusely before practically collapsing next to Les on his bed.

"So, from what I saw today, your boys are a couple of born newsies. Can I have some more?" He added to Sarah.

"Yes," Sarah said, taking his bowl.

So with their hard work and my experience," Jack continued, "I figure we can peddle a thousand papes a week and not even break a sweat."

"That many?" Mr. Jacobs asked, surprised.

"More when the headline's good." Jack said.

"So what makes the headline good?" Sarah asked, sitting down in her seat.

"Oh, you know. Catchy words like maniac, or corpse, umm…love nest, or nude."

It was quite clear that all of his attention was on her, and vice versa. They started laughing awkwardly, so I had to clear my throat rather loudly to get Jack's attention. I simply glared and motioned to Les and my cousins, reminding him that all three of them were under thirteen years old.

"Excuse me." Jack apologized. "Maybe I'm talkin' too much."

Mr. Jacobs was smiling kindly as he spoke to his daughter. "Sarah? Go get the cake your mother's hiding in the cabinet."

Mrs. Jacobs swat at him with a dish towel. "That's for your birthday tomorrow!" She protested.

"Well, I've had enough birthdays. This is a celebration." Mr. Jacobs shrugged, still smiling.

"I'll get the knife." David said, standing up.

"I got the plates." Sarah piped from the cabinets.

"This is only the beginning, papa." David told his father. "The longer I work, the more money I'll make."

"You'll only work until I go back to the factory, and then you are going back to school, like you promised." Mr. Jacobs told his son. David's face looked fallen for a moment, but he brushed it aside and forced a smile on his face.

"Happy birthday, papa." Sarah said, kissing her father's cheek.

"This is going to heal, and they'll give me my job back." Mr. Jacobs looked up towards the three members of his family. "We'll make them."

None of the Jacobs said anything, but they did serve the cake to us. The memory of the family together like that around Mr. Jacobs stayed in my mind as I started taking a few bites of the chocolate cake. It had been a while since my family had been as close knit as this one…

We were interrupted by Les singing in his sleep.

_Come back my lovey dovey baby  
And coochie-coo with me!_

I couldn't help it; I joined the boys as they started laughing at Les singing Medda's song.

* * *

After the cake, David, Jack and I went out onto the fire escape to talk some more.

"So, how'd your pop get hurt?" Jack asked him.

"At the factory." David answered, a weak smile on his face. "It was an accident. He's no good to them anymore, so they just fired him. He's got no union to protect him."

We were interrupted by Mr. Jacobs appearing at the window.

"David, it's time to come in now." He said, nodding to Jack and me before going back inside.

"Alright. Guys, why don't you stay here tonight?" He asked us.

"Are you sure you guys have room for all four of us?" I asked. "I don't want to impose."

"We can work something out." David said.

"Thank you for the offer, but I've got a place." I had to lie then; I felt bad for what I was already asking of him. "But listen, could you mind Ginny and Charlie for me? I don't think they can make the journey home tonight; they're both a little exhausted."

"Sure, but what about you? It's not safe for a girl to be walking around at night."

I shrugged. "Momentai, David. I know the basics on how to fight, I'll survive."

That bit was actually true; I was involved in a martial arts club not that long ago. I wasn't able to continue with it, but I did learn the basics of fighting.

"I'll take her home, I got a place of my own." Jack said. "But you're family's real nice, like mine."

"See you tomorrow." David said. "Carrying the banner."

"Carrying the banner." Jack and I repeated as David vanished back into his apartment.

"You really got a place, Clover?" Jack asked me as he watched the family through the window. Okay, how did he just _do_ that?

I shrugged. "Momentai, Jack. I figure I'll be living out on the streets anyway, so might as well start now. Ginny and Charlie aren't used to that kind of circumstances though, so that's why I asked David to look after them."

"We got a spare room for girls in the boardin' house." Jack said. "And this ain't no charity, neither. It ain't safe for a girl to be out on the streets alone at night, so I ain't takin' no for an answer. I'll walk you there."

"…well, alright. Thank you for the offer."

We climbed down the fire escape and walked through the streets together.

"Momentai?" Jack repeated.

"Good memory." I shrugged again. "It's a Chinese word that I learned from a friend of a friend. It means 'Take it easy' and 'don't worry'."

There was a moment of silence as Jack took in what I told him.

"So what's a doll face like yerself an' the kids doin' out on the streets?" He asked after a while.

I pinched my nose bridge at the pet name. "I only just got to New York." I answered honestly. I hadn't yet figured out what story I was going to say to explain my coming to New York-in the late 1800's no less-so I decided to improvise for now. "I contemplated the idea of running away from home, but I didn't think I'd make it this far, and I certainly didn't think that Ginny and Charlie would be with me."

"So where are ya really from, Clover?"

"Why do you call me Clover, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Well, today's been a good business day." Jack said. "And I just happened to get real lucky to sell so many papes with a bad headline, outrun Snyder as fast as I did, and get a decent meal and a promise for a good headline tomorrow. I figure your sudden appearance in town had somethin' to do with it, and since every newsie needs a nickname I'm callin' ya Clover from now on."

I wasn't sure of whether to be flattered or insulted, so I decided the best thing to do was to change the subject. "Michigan. Grand Rapids, to be precise."

"No kiddin'? How'd you get all the way here?"

I shrugged again. "Got lucky, I guess."

I was pretty sure that Jack was aware of my not being completely honest, but he let it slide for the moment. After a while, we came across a piano just sitting outside an old saloon. When Jack saw it, he turned to me.

"We got some time to kill before goin' back to the lodgin' house, you know any songs?"

"A handful." I said, suddenly quite happy. My favorite song in the whole movie…and I was part of it!

We went over to the piano, and I took a deep breath before playing the familiar tune. I added a nice soft touch to it, making it sound like a faraway dream or idea.

_Jack: So that's what they call a family  
Mudder, daughter, fadder, son  
Guess everything you heard about it's true.  
So you ain't got any family  
Well, who said you needed one?  
Ain'tcha glad nobody's waiting up for you?_

_Leah: When I dream on my own  
I'm alone, but I ain't lonely  
For a dreamer, night's the only time of day  
When the city's finally sleeping  
When my thoughts begin to stray  
Both: And I'm on the train that bound for Santa Fe_

_And I'm free  
Like the wind  
Like I'm gonna live forever.  
It's a feeling time can never take away  
All I need's a few more dollars  
And I'm outta here to stay  
Dreams come true  
Yes they do  
In Santa Fe  
_

_Jack: Where does it say you've gotta live and die here?  
Where does it say a guy can't catch a break?  
Why should you only take what you're given?  
Why should you spend your whole life livin'_

_Leah: Trapped where there ain't no future  
Even at dead eighteen  
Breaking your heart for someone else's sake_

_Jack: If the life don't seem to suit ya  
How bout a change of scene?  
Far from the lousy headlines  
And the deadlines in between_

Suddenly, I was no longer some girl that people either had too much pity for or too much respect for. I wasn't Leah Brinks, living only as an ornament of the family or friends at church. I was just plain Leah, who dreamed of living a life filled with adventure, suspense, and excitement, just as I had been when I was only a child. This was the feeling I got every time I sang the song, played it on the piano, or listened to it on my iPod.

I wasn't playing on the piano anymore; Jack had swung me around in a circle while we were singing before setting me down and doing a lasso dance. I was amazed by his talent with the lasso; it was better than using a hula hoop. I swear at one point, he actually jumped right through it while still swinging the handle and just kept swinging it around and around without losing the tempo. We ran through the town, me just watching him dancing with the lasso or performing other cowboy stunts. After a while, he jumped onto a horse he had taken from a circus and grabbed my arm so that I could join him on the horse. As we rode through town, I got a taste of the freedom that I had wanted for so long; freedom to be whoever I wanted to be and to go wherever I wanted. No responsibilities, no lies of love to be tangled in, nothing at all. I was free.

It suddenly occurred to me that I could stay in New York or go to Santa Fe, if I truly wanted to be away from Grand Rapids. No one would ever make a pet of me or be annoyingly sympathetic to me for no reason ever again.

_Both: Santa Fe  
Are you there?  
Do you swear you won't forget me?  
If I found you would you let me come and stay?  
I ain't getting any younger  
And before my dying day I want space  
Not just air  
Let 'em laugh in my face, I don't care  
Save a place  
I'll be there_

We were close to the lodging house when Jack got off of the horse. I felt a pang of sadness; the freedom had only been temporary.

_Jack: So that's what they call a family…_

_Leah: Ain'tcha glad you ain't that way?_

_Both: Ain'tcha glad you got a dream called Santa Fe?_

No words were exchanged as we finished the walk to the lodging house. I think the song that we sang together spoke for itself. We were just walking to the door when we were joined by Racetrack, who was also going in.

"Heya Race." Jack said.

"Hey Jack, Clover."

I pinched my nose bridge again. Obviously, Jack must've found some way to get it across to the other newsies that my new name was Clover.

"How was your day at the track?" Jack asked his newsie friend.

"Remember that hot tip I told you about? Nobody told the horse."

* * *

**AN: Wow, this chapter got longer than I had intended it for it to be. However, I do think that it was worth it; I like how this chapter turned out, and Santa Fe is probably my favorite of the 'Newsies' songs. Reviews are nice!**


	5. Chapter 5: Carrying the Banner

**AN: Hey all, I decided to update a few days early due to the fact that a reviewer was kind enough to point out a few mistakes that I had made in the writing process. Thanks, Ember! And to answer your question about Leah recognizing the movie, I wrote in an earlier chapter that Leah only remembered a handful of things from the movie, including the name Jack Kelly and the Santa Fe song. There are a few other things that she remembers, but since she only saw it once she doesn't remember the faces of the characters or the songs in the movie other than Santa Fe and bits and pieces of "And the World Will Know". The other mistakes you mentioned have been changed. Thanks again!  
**

**As promised, 'Carrying the Banner' is now in this chapter. I felt bad for not putting it in an earlier chapter; I watched the behind-the-scenes feature on the DVD, and after hearing that this song was a lot like the 'newsies national anthem' (as the director put it). I figured that the song should be somewhere in this story, so here it is. This will also be a shorter chapter…well, shorter than the last one, at least. Enjoy!**

** Disclaimer: I only own Leah, Ginny and Charlie. Everything else is either history or Disney's.**

Chapter Five: Carrying the Banner

Time: Mid-June, 1899

We went inside, and Jack introduced me to the other newsies and to Mr. Kloppman, the man who ran the house and took care of the boys. I took an instant liking to all of them; the newsies reminded me of my friends back in Michigan, and Mr. Kloppman was like a grandfather figure that I was sure my two cousins would adore. I wasn't even pitied by him, either; to him, I was just another new newsie, and I absolutely loved it.

I didn't remember all of the newsies' names, but I did make some mental notes about them in my head: Snipeshooter was the plump boy with curly red hair who had a habit of stealing Racetrack's cigars; Kid Blink was the boy with the eye patch over his eye; Dutchy was the one with glasses and red hair while Specs was the one with bigger glasses and usually wore a black hat similar to the Delanceys (I was not to confuse the two, which was my first mistake); Boots was a young African-American boy around Charlie's age; Snitch was the one with large front teeth who looked somewhat similar to Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter; and Mush was an American-Asian boy with curly hair who was probably one of the newsies that I could trust with my cousins the most because he was so nice with the younger boys…and he was also the only newsie other than Crutchy who didn't call me doll face.

I also learned from Mr. Kloppman the reason behind the nicknames; a few of these boys were fugitives from the law, like Jack. Suddenly I was almost grateful for the nickname that Jack had given me…almost.

After Jack introduced me to them, he led me further up the stairs to show me a room where the newsies would go if they were sick.

"I know I said that we had a room for girls," Jack said, scratching the back of his head. "But this one was it. We don't usually have girls stayin' at the lodgin' house."

"That's alright, I like it." I said. I actually did; it was a nice, clean, simple room. And if I did need to stay here for longer than one night, it would be a whole lot easier than trying to constantly figure out which bunk was mine down in the boys' room.

After Jack left and said good-night, I sat down and thought about the time between leaving David's apartment and coming to the lodging house. Now that the adrenaline from the song was over, I was reminded of another memory of walking through the college campus through the rain with another friend...

I shook my head. "You're being ridiculous, Brinks." I told myself. "Nothing good can come from dwelling on the past. And anyways, you've got a long day ahead tomorrow."

I had a vague idea of what could be happening the next day, but I was too tired to dwell on it and decided to lie down on the bed. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It had been a long time since I had gotten any sleep, and frankly it felt good.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up to the sounds of Mr. Kloppman waking up the boys in the bunkroom.

"Boots! Skittery! Skittery! Skittery!"

"Wha…I didn't do it!" One of the other newsies shouted. I wasn't sure why he would claim that, but I did take Kloppman's shouts as a cue to get going. I stretched and straightened out my clothes as much as I could while I listened to the boys waking up and getting ready.

"What do you mean you didn't do it? Will you get up? When you get up, it's time to get up! Snitch! Get up! Get up! Everybody's sleeping. They sleep their lives away these kids! The presses are rolling! Sell the papers, sell the papers! Come on, come on. You dreaming about selling papers?"

As I walked down to the boys' level, I wasn't sure of whether or not it would be safe for me to go inside; it WAS a boys' room, after all.

"Hiya, Clove." Mush piped from a few beds ahead of me, holding a pile of clean clothes in his arms and walking up to me. "We figured ya might need these."

"Oh, um...thanks, Mush." I muttered, taking the clothes. I didn't think that I would need them, but it would be rude to refuse hospitality.

"Yer also welcome to use our washroom." Mush replied. "We don't have a room for girls, but we made a deal to leave a stall open fer you so you could change."

Aha! I knew there was a good reason for not refusing his hospitality! "Thanks, Mush!" I exclaimed gratefully before following him back inside.

I did my best to focus my eyes elsewhere; many of the boys were shirtless. Any other girl in my position would've swooned, but I was just grateful that there was room for me to get to the washroom. Once I passed Jack's bed, though, I decided to give Mr. Kloppman a hand with trying to wake him up. Thankfully, Jack at least had an undershirt on.

"Mmmmmm? What's the matta with you?" Jack grumbled.

I gave Mr. Kloppman a look asking if I could try something. Mr. Kloppman gestured with his hand, telling me to go for it. I couldn't help it, the timing of it all was just too good. I had done this to get my roommate to wake up on time during my first year of college, and it had convinced her to wake up on time on her own. First I steadily beat my hands against his bunk, to test how awake he was.

"What's the matta with you?" Jack muttered, burying his face in his pillow. "Wanna…go…back…to…"

He was awake alright, just trying to get back to sleep. I had to make this fast before he actually did. "Hey Jack, the refuge warden's downstairs and he's going to search the rooms." I said a little too loudly.

That did it. Jack Kelly shot up like a light bulb, showing no sign that he had been asleep five minutes earlier. Mr. Kloppman winked at me and mouthed a 'thanks' before going to the other boys.

"Get up boy! Come on. Alright! Carry the banner! Sell the papers!"

Grinning and chuckling to myself, I turned around to see Racetrack sitting in his bunk, looking for his cigar. I would've offered to help, but then I noticed that it was in Snipeshooter's mouth. Racetrack noticed this too, and snatched it back.

_Racetrack: That's my cigar!_

_Snipeshooter: You'll steal anudder!_

Kid Blink took the next line, breaking up the fight.

_Kid Blink: Hey bummers, we got work tah do!_

_Specs: Since when did you become me mudder?_

_Crutchy: Aww, stop your bawling!_

_Newsies: Hey, who asked you?_

Grinning, I made my way through to the washroom. Honestly, I just loved watching how boys acted around each other; easygoing, brotherly, and often just plain ridiculous. Dignity had absolutely nothing to do with their interactions in any way whatsoever. My grin just got wider when I saw Jack rubbing his back, looking nearly dead on his feet.

"So, how'd you sleep Jack?" I giggled.

"On me back, Clover." He answered.

"Good one." I said, my grin fading just a bit at the joke. Thankfully, Mush was able to laugh for me.

"Hear that fellas?" He laughed as he passed us. "Hear what Jack said? Clover asked Jack how he slept and he said 'On me back Clover!'"

Right behind Mush was Crutchy.

"Jack, Clover, when I walk, does it look like I'm faking it?" He asked us.

"No. Who says you're fakin' it?" Jack asked.

"I dunno." Crutchy rubbed his back as the boys made their way to the mirrors and tables. "It's just there's so many fake crips on the street today, a real crip ain't got a chance. I gotta find me a new selling spot where they ain't used to seeing me."

I figured Jack could give Crutchy better selling advice than I could, so I looked for an empty stall, listening to the boys singing as my eyes skimmed through the room.

_Mush: Try Bottle Alley or the harbor._

_Racetrack: Try Central Park, it's guaranteed._

_Jack: Try any baker, bum, or barber._

_Skittery: They almost all knows how to read._

I finally found an open stall, which Kid Blink had just walked out of. I was almost there when I smelled a horrible stench. _Ulgh...so much for privacy._ I thought.

_Kid Blink: I smell money…_

_Crutchy: You smell foul!_

_Mush: Met this girl last night_

_Crutchy: Move your elbow!_

_Racetrack: Pass the towel!_

_Skittery: For a buck I might!_

_Newsies: Ain't it a fine life  
Carrying the banner through it all?  
A mighty fine life  
Carrying the banner tough and tall  
Every morning, we goes where we wishes  
We's as free as fished  
Sure beats washin' dishes  
What a fine life  
Carrying the banner home-free all!_

Still singing, I followed the boys out of the room, down the stairs, out the door and through the streets. I immediately recognized the tune of the song from yesterday. The song must've been the newsies' morning routine, or something along the lines of that.

_Summer stinks and winter's waiting  
Welcome to New York  
Boy, ain't nature fascinating  
When you'se gotta walk?  
Still, it's a fine life  
Carrying the banner with me chums  
A mighty fine life  
Blowing every nickel as it comes_

_Crutchy: I'm no snoozer  
Sitting makes me antsy  
I likes living chancy_

_Newsies: Harlem tah Delancey  
What a fine life  
Carrying the banner through the slums_

Just then, we came across a few nuns by a cart. The boys stopped singing to go over to them. _This must be where they get their breakfast_, I thought.

_Nuns: Blessed children thought you wonder lost and depraved  
Jesus loves you, you shall be saved!_

I didn't know what to make of the nuns; it was nice that they were giving us free food in God's name, but I wasn't sure if it was some sort of publicity stunt. However, breakfast was breakfast, and when living like an 1800's newsie there was just no arguing with that. As we took a cup of soup or a loaf of bread, a young woman sang her own solo, looking for her son.

_Patrick (Just give me half a cup)_

_Darling (Something to wake me up)_

_Since you left me (I gotta find an angle)_

_I am undone (I gotta sell more papes)_

_Mother (Papers is all I got)_

_Loves you (Sure hope the headline's good)_

_God save (God help me if it's not)_

_My son (Somebody help me, please…)_

Once we left the cart and finished our meager meals, the song we had started earlier picked up again as we jumped around carts, mostly improvising dances as we went.

_Newsies: If I hate the headline, I'll make up the headline  
And I'll say anything I hafta  
'Cause it's two for a penny, if I take too many  
Weasel just makes me eat 'em afta_

We had reached the distribution center by now. Overhead, they were writing the day's headlines for the papers. Now the boys were just waiting for the doors to open.

_Look! They're putting up the headline  
They call that a headline?  
I get better stories from the copper on the beat  
I was gunna start with twenty but a dozen'll be plenty  
Tell me, how'm I gonna make ends meet?_

_We need a good assassination!  
We need an earthquake or a war!_

_Snipeshooter: How 'bout a crooked politician?_

_Newsies: Hey, stupid, that ain't news no more!  
Uptown to Grand Central Station  
Down to City Hall  
We improves our circulation  
Walkin' till we fall!_

_Still we'll be out there  
Carrying the banner man to man!  
Yes, we'll be out there  
Soaking every sucker that we can!  
See the headline  
Newsies on a mission  
Kill the competition  
Sell the next edition  
While we're out there  
Carrying the banner is the..._

The gates opened much earlier than they did yesterday, which surprised me. When we got inside, many of the boys received the worst news imaginable.

**AN: Sadly, this chapter had to end in another cliffhanger. Otherwise, it would've been a lot longer than I had intended for it to be. On a random note, I'm also fairly certain that this is the only chapter (so far) in which Leah did not roll her eyes, pinch her nose bridge, or say "Momentai." (Noticeably, at least; I'm pretty sure she did at some point in the chapter) Anyways, reviews are nice, as always =)**

**By the way, am I the only one who thinks that one of the newsies looks like Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter? I'm thinking about Snitch, the newsie who was sucking his thumb and sharing a bed with one of the other newsies in the very beginning of the movie.  
**


	6. Chapter 6: The Newsies' Strike

**AN: Another chapter. This one was really hard to work with, since I had no idea of how to make it more original. I'm still kind of iffy on it. Hopefully, the story should get better as it goes along.**

** Disclaimer: Newsies is not mine. Leah, Ginny, and Charlie are.**

Chapter Six: The Newsies' Strike

Time: Mid-June, 1899

"They jacked up the price!" Kid Blink was still lamenting five minutes after we received the bad news (no pun intended). Behind him, Oscar was miming his moves. "Ten cents a hundred! You know, it's bad enough that we gotta eat what we don't sell, now they jack up the price! Can you believe that?"

"This'll bust me, I'm barely making a living right now." Skittery groaned.

"I'll be back to sleeping on the streets." Boots said, as though it were already official.

By then, we were already joined by David, Les, Ginny and Charlie, who had received the news and weren't taking it well, either.

"Leah, I don't like those people." Charlie said to me, motioning to Weasel and the Delancey brothers. "They don't like anybody at all."

"They weren't the ones who increased the price." I told him, even though I agreed with him wholeheartedly. "They've got an even greedier boss, and he was the one who raised the price of the papers."

"It don't make no sense." Mush said. "I mean, all the money Pulitzer's making, why would he gouge us?"

"Because he's a tight wad, that's why!" Racetrack said to much chagrin of the other newsies.

"Why the jack up, Weasel?" Jack asked.

"Why not?" Weasel shrugged, looking about as gleeful as a hyena. "It's a nice day. Why don'tcha ask Mr. Pulitzer?"

"They can't do this to me Jack." Kid Blink told his leader.

"They can do whatever they want. It's their stinkin' paper." Racetrack said, lighting a match to light his cigar.

"Jack, we got no choice, so why don't we get our lousy papes while they still got some, huh?" Mush suggested, making his way to the window.

Many of the other newsies made to follow him, but Jack stopped them all before they could buy any papers. "No! Nobody's going anywhere. They can't get away with this!"

An argument was starting among the boys. Thankfully, Ginny broke it up and reminded the boys who Jack was.

"Give him some room, give him some room!" She snapped at the boys. "Let him think!"

Jack thanked her as he lit a cigarette that one of the other boys gave to him. I didn't approve of him doing this around my cousins-he and the other newsies were a bad enough influence as it was-but I knew that now was not the time to rebuke him for it. There was a long moment of silence as Jack contemplated the situation.

"Jack, you done thinkin' yet?" Racetrack asked after a while.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! World employees only on this side of the gate!" Weasel shouted, closing the window as a majority of the newsies shouted and protested against him.

"Well, listen." Jack said finally. "One thing for sure, if we don't sell papes, then nobody sells papes. Nobody comes through those gates until they put the price back to where it was."

"You mean like a strike?" I asked, almost in a teasing manner.

"Yeah, like a strike!"

Okay, this bit of the movie I did remember. I didn't remember the many shouts and protests that circulated among the boys.

"Are you out of your mind?" Racetrack exclaimed disbelievingly.

"It's a good idea!" Jack said.

"Jack, she was only joking." David muttered to him. "We can't go on strike, we don't have a union."

"Momentai, David!" I told him, ignoring the looks from the other boys as I realized that Jack's idea wasn't actually a bad one at all. "Besides, if we work together, then technically we are a union, right?"

"No, we're just a bunch of angry kids with no money. Maybe if we got every newsie in New York, but..."

This was just the wrong thing for David to say, as Jack was suddenly so into the idea of a newsies' strike that nothing could sway him from it.

"Yeah, well, we organize." Jack suddenly began giving orders and instructions. "Crutchy, you take up for collection. We get all the newsies of New York together."

"Jack, this isn't a joke." David protested as we made our way out of the distribution center and gathered around the Horace Greeley statue. "You saw what happened to those trolley workers."

"Yeah, well that's another good idea. Any newsie don't join with us, then we bust their heads like the trolley workers." Jack said to the newsies.

"Stop and think about this Jack!" David opposed. "You can't just rush everybody into this!"

Jack finally seemed to consider David's words. "Alright. Let me think about it." He raised his voice so that all of the boys could hear him. "Listen, Dave's right. Pulitzer and Hearst and all them other rich fellas, I mean, they own this city. So do they really think a bunch of street kids like us can make any difference? The choice has got to be yours. Are we just gonna take what they give us, or are we gonna strike?"

There was a moment of silence as we thought about Jack's words. And then Les said it for us, much to David's chagrin. "Strike!"

The boys made sounds of excitement as they agreed with Les.

"Keep talking Jack, tell us what to do!" Boots said to his leader excitedly.

Jack turned to David. "Well, you tell us what to do Dave."

I could tell that David was uncomfortable with the position he was in. He was a pacifist; he was opposed to the fighting. But at the same time, he couldn't deny the position we were in. So he finally relented to the idea.

"Pulitzer and Hearst have to respect our rights." He said. It was too quiet for the boys in the back to hear, so Jack took the spotlight again.

"Hey listen!" He shouted. "Pulitzer and Hearst have to respect the rights of the working boys of New York!"

The boys applauded his words. I turned to David. "Alright, but that's just the beginning." I said. "Go deeper; let these kids know that they have rights as people. Let them know that America is not a country based on social dictatorship, but on social equality; that everyone is equal in Heaven's eyes. Anything else we ought to know?"

David turned to Jack. "Tell them that they can't treat us like we don't exist."

I sensed another song coming as Jack stood on the Greeley statue. "Pulitzer and Hearst, they think we're nothing. Are we nothing?"

"No!" The newsies shouted.

"As long as we stick together and rely on each other, then there's no way that they can break us up." I pointed out.

The song I had anticipated began. I was beginning to get the hang of this.

_Jack: Pulitzer and Hearst, they think they got us. Do they got us?_

_Newsies: No!_

"We're a union now, the Newsboys Union!" David said, really starting to get the hang of it. "We have to start acting like a union!"

I gave him a teasing look in spite of myself. "So you're saying that Ginny and I are newsboys?"

But the song continued despite what I had said.

_Jack: Even though we ain't got hats or badges  
We're a union just by saying so  
And the World will know!_

"What's to start somebody else from selling our papes?" Boots pointed out.

"Well, what's wrong with them?" Jack asked.

"Some of them don't hear so good!" Racetrack said.

"Well then we'll soak 'em!"

Of course, the newsie answer to everything as far as I could tell.

"No! We can't beat up kids in the streets. It'll give us a bad name." David protested.

"Can't get any worse." Crutchy argued fairly.

_Jack: What's it gonna take to stop the wagons? Are we ready?_

_Newsies: Yeah!_

"No!" David did the best he could to try to end the idea of fighting in the strike.

"Too late." I told him as the boys really got into Jack's new idea.

_Jack: What's it gonna take to stop the scabbers? Can we do it?_

_Newsies: Yeah!_

_Jack: We'll do what we gotta do until we  
Break the will of mighty Bill and Joe!_

_Newsies: And the World will know  
And the Journal too!  
Mr. Hearst and Pulitzer  
Have we got news for you!  
Now the World will hear  
What we've got to say  
We've been hawking headlines  
But we're making 'em today.  
And our ranks will grow!_

_Crutchy: And we'll kick their rear!_

_Newsies: And the World will know that we been here!_

_Jack: When the circulation bell starts ringing  
Will we hear it?_

_Newsies: No!_

_Jack: What if the Delancey's come out swinging'  
Will we hear it?_

_Newsies: No!  
When you've got a hundred voices singing  
Who can hear a lousy whistle blow?  
And the World will know  
That this ain't no game  
That we got a ton of rotten fruit and perfect aim  
So they gave their word  
But it ain't worth beans!  
Now they're gonna see what_

_'stop the presses' really mean  
And the day has come  
And the time is now  
And the fear is gone_

_Boots: And their name is mud!_

_Newsies: And the strike is on_

_Boots: And I can't stand blood!_

_Newsies: And the World will…_

_Jack: Pulitzer may own the world, but he don't own us!_

_Newsies: Pulitzer may own the world, but he don't own us!_

_Jack: Pulitzer may crack the whip but he won't whip us!_

_Newsies: Pulitzer may crack the whip but he won't whip us!  
And the World will know  
And the World will learn  
And the World will wonder how  
We made the tables turn  
And the World will see  
That we had to choose  
That the things we do today  
Will be tomorrow's news  
And the old will fall  
And the young stand tall  
And the time is now  
And the winds will blow  
And our ranks will grow  
And grow and grow and so  
The World will feel the fire  
And finally know!_

By the time the song was done, Jack had climbed the ladder to the chalkboard where the headlines were written, taken a piece of chalk, and wrote "STRIKE" all across in huge letters. The newsies cheered and made war calls as Jack led them into chanting "Strike!" until he had climbed back down the ladder. We followed him until we were in front of a building that looked like a city capitol, sitting close to the distribution center.

"We gotta get word out to all the newsies of New York." Jack announced. "I need some of those….what'dja call 'em?"

"Ambassadors?" David suggested.

"Yeah, right. Okay, you guys, you gotta be ambastards-" (I pinched my nose bridge when the boys started chuckling at the word)"-and go tell the others that we're on strike."

"Say, Jack, I'll take Harlem." Kid Blink offered, starting to take off.

"Yeah, I got Midtown." Racetrack followed him away.

"I got the Battery, Jack." Mush assured his leader before turning to my cousin. "Hey Chuck, care to join me?"

"Leah?" Charlie looked at me.

"Go for it." I told him encouragingly. I had already asked Mush and Crutchy about watching my cousins, to which they agreed. Charlie thanked me and left with Mush.

"Hey, I'll take the Bronx. And I'll take Ginger with me." Crutchy said as he took one of the other boys with him and turned to Ginny.

Ginny didn't even look to me for approval; she liked Crutchy and wasn't afraid of him in the least. "All right! See ya later, Leah!" She exclaimed as he left my side to join Crutchy and the other boy.

"Alright." Jack began sending other ambassadors. "And Bumlets, and Specs and Skittery, you take Queens. Pie Eater! Snoddy! East Side! Snipeshooter, you go with 'em. So, who wants Brooklyn?"

Dead silence. I gulped. Was Brooklyn really that bad?

"Come on, Spot Conlon's territory." Jack and I seemed to be in like minds in a sense. "What'sa matta? You scared of Brooklyn?"

"Hey, we ain't scared of Brooklyn!" Boots protested, backing off a bit as he said the next bit. "Spot Conlon makes us a little nervous."

"Well, he don't make me nervous." Jack said. "So you and me, Boots, we'll go to Brooklyn. And Dave and our lucky Clover here can keep us company."

Oh, terrific. I was the 'lucky charm' again. For a newsie that could cause dead silence among a group of rowdy boys with just a reference to his name. And if Jack referred to me as a lucky clover to take to Spot Conlon, we were pretty much as good as dead meat.

"Sure, just as soon as you deliver our demands to Pulitzer." David suggested.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Jack Kelly was going to pay dearly.

"Me? To Pulitzer?" He repeated.

"He's got a point, Jack. Momentai!" I said in a teasing manner, grinning like the Grinch when that horrible idea came to his mind about stealing Christmas. I didn't remember what had happened at this part of the Newsies movie, but I honestly could not _wait_ to see how this would turn out.

Jack gave me a look before looking up at the building. He made to go in…but then he grabbed Les before he actually did. The newsies started cheering again, chanting as they walked back to the Horace Greeley statue. David turned to me.

"Momentai?" He repeated.

"It's Chinese for 'don't worry' or 'take it easy'." I explained, looking back at the doors to the building. "I'm probably going to be using that word a lot from here on out."

It was then that we were interrupted by a man who I somewhat recognized from the movie. He was tall, blond, blue-eyed, and seemed friendly enough.

"Hey, what is the strike?" He asked. "What's going on?"

"We're bringing out demands to Pulitzer." David answered.

"What demands?" The man asked.

"The newsies demands. We're on strike." I spoke for David; he seemed a little uneasy.

"I'm with the New York Sun." The man said to us, but mostly David. "Bryan Denton. You seem like the kid in charge. What's your name?"

"David."

"David. David as in David and Goliath?" Denton asked. David blushed. I could tell that the journalist made him feel a little more confident. "You really think old man Pulitzer's going to listen to your demands?" Denton asked.

Before David could answer, Jack and Les were already out of the World building-thrown out, to be precise.

"Well, so's your old lady! You tell Pulitzer he needs an appointment with me!" Jack shouted as the doors closed.

* * *

Later, we were at a restaurant called "Tibby's." Jack was filling us in on what had gone on in Pulitzer's office, and Denton was taking notes.

"So this snooty mug says to me, 'You can't see Mr. Pulitzer. No one sees Mr. Pulitzer.'" Jack mocked the 'snooty mug' by raising his voice to sound like someone with a sinus problem. "Real hoity-toity, you know the type?"

"Real hoity-toity." Les repeated between sips of his soup.

"So that's when I says to him, 'Listen, I ain't in the habit of transacting no business with office boys. Just tell him Jack Kelly's here to see him now!'" Jack continued, really getting into the story.

"That's when he threw us out." Les said.

David and I tried to bite back a laugh, but I do believe that I was more successful at it than David was.

"Does he scare you?" Denton asked him. "You're going up against the most powerful man in New York City."

"Oh yeah, look at me. I'm trembling." Jack pretended to shiver.

"Alright, keep me informed. I want to know everything that's going on." He told us.

"Are we really an important story?" I asked him.

"Well, what's important?" Denton said to me with a kind smile. "Last year I covered the war in Cuba. Charged up San Juan Hill with Colonel Teddy Roosevelt. That was an important story. So, is the newsies strike important? That all depends on you."

"So my name's really gonna be in the papers?" Jack asked.

"Any objections?"

"Not as long as you get it right. It's Kelly, Jack Kelly. No pictures."

"Sure, Jack." Denton said before leaving.

* * *

**AN: Well, I think it turned out okay at the end. For all of you Spot Conlon fans, he will make an appearance in the next chapter! By the way, I have to ask: am I the only one who finds it funny when Jack mocks the guy when he says 'you can't see Mr. Pulitzer, no one sees Mr. Pulitzer'? Anyways, please leave a helpful review!**


	7. Chapter 7: Brooklyn and Seize the Day

** AN: I'm semi-pleased with how this turned out. I feel as though I could've done more, but you know college. It gives you great ideas at just the worst moments, and then it takes those ideas away once you actually have time to take note of them. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!**

** Disclaimer: Newsies belongs to Disney. Leah, Ginny and Charlie belong to me.**

Chapter Seven: Brooklyn and Seize the Day

Time: Mid-June, 1899

After lunch, we dropped Les off by the group of remaining Manhattan newsies and picked Boots up. Then we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge.

"I've never been to Brooklyn, have you?" David asked me.

"No, but I've always wanted to."

"I spent a month there one night." Boots said.

A month in one night? I would've asked him what he meant by that, but he and Jack brilliantly decided to lean over the railing and shout down to the river. I looked down…we were pretty darn high.

"Oddly, this actually looks appealing to me." I said.

"Screaming over the edge of the bridge?" David asked.

"I was actually thinking something along the lines of lifting them up by their feet while they were shouting and throwing them over the edge of the bridge, but yeah, that too." My mood was not to be tested; with each step closer to Brooklyn, my stomach felt worse and worse.

"So, is this Spot Conlon really dangerous?" David asked.

Instead of answering, Jack only laughed. I wasn't sure of what to make of that.

* * *

Once we crossed the bridge into Brooklyn, Jack led us down to the docks. The Brooklyn newsies were all there, shirtless and jumping into the water. One of them climbed back up onto a dock and blocked Jack's path.

"Going somewhere, Kelly?" He asked in a menacing manner.

Jack ignored him, pushing past him. David, Boots and I only followed, none of us saying one word. Snipeshooter had offered a spare hat to me, which I now used to hide my eyes-high enough so that I could see where the others were going but low enough so that the Brooklyn newsies wouldn't see my fear. That was the one rule that my martial arts instructor had taught my class when we began: do not let your opponent see fear in you at all costs.

"Well, if it ain't Jack be nimble, Jack be quick." A voice rang out from above us.

Charlie would not want to be in my shoes right now. The boys came to a stop, looking up. I removed Snipeshooter's spare hat, still hiding my eyes, but enough so that I could see what was going on.

Spot Conlon had been sitting on a pile of crates, and he was now making his way down. He had red suspenders, a gray hat, beige plaid shirt, and I also noticed that he had a thin string tied around his neck, and a small key was hanging on that string. What was it the key to? The Brooklyn lodging house? But that wasn't what stuck out to me the most. What scared me the most was that Spot had a cane with a gold handle tucked in his belt loop, and I knew that it couldn't possibly be to help him walk.

"I see you moved up in the world, Spot." Jack said to him. "Got a river view and everythin'."

Spot finally landed. I moved the cap farther down, trying not to be seen. To my relief, Jack and Spot spit-shook hands like they were old friends. The leader of Brooklyn then turned to Boots, who seemed at ease as well.

"Heya Boots. How's it rollin'?" He asked him.

"I got a couple of real good shooters." Boots said, holding out a handful of marbles.

Spot took one, examined it, and the proceeded to take out a sling shot. If I was nervous before, it was _nothing_ compared to now. I couldn't see to whom Spot was aiming at without having to lift Snipeshooter's cap too high, but if he hit me with even one marble I would be turning around and heading straight back to Manhattan.

"So, Jacky-boy." Spot said to Jack, taking aim above our heads. "I've been hearing things from little birds. Things from Harlem, Queens, all over."

Here, he released the marble. It whizzed past David's head and broke an unopened bottle of alcohol, causing us to jump. Spot looked undisturbed, as did the other two newsies.

"They're chirpin' in my ear." Spot continued, putting his slingshot back into his pocket. "Jacky-boy's newsies is playing like they're going on strike."

By this time, he was starting to get a bit into David's face.

"We're not playing." David said. "We are going on strike."

Apparently this was the wrong thing to say.

"Oh yeah?" Spot said in a mocking voice, not looking too pleased. "Yeah? What is this, Jacky-boy? Some kind of walking mouth?"

"Yeah, it's a mouth." Jack still didn't look disturbed in the slightest as he patted David's shoulders. "A mouth with a brain, and if you got half a one, you'll listen to what he's got to say."

I gave Jack a look that clearly said "are you out of your _mind?_" Spot sat down on a crate and gave David his undivided attention, still looking suspicious about him.

"Well, we started the strike, but we can't do it alone." David started nervously. "So, we're talking to newsies all around the city."

"Yeah, so they told me. But what'd they tell you?"

"They're waiting to see what Spot Conlon is doing, you're the key." David continued, gaining a little confidence as he spoke.

Lifting the hat just a little, I remembered Spot's key and muttered "good one."

Spot's eyes flickered to me, but not for long before he focused on David again, smiling. I wasn't sure of whether to fear for my life or not, but I felt better once David kept stroking his ego.

"That Spot Conlon is the most respected and famous newsie in all of New York, and probably everywhere else." David continued, ignoring me. "And if Spot Conlon joins the strike, then they'll join and we'll be unstoppable. So you gotta join, I mean... well, you gotta!"

Spot, Jack and Boots were smiling, so I felt better. I also noticed that Spot's eyes had something unreadable in them…was it pride? Kindness? Or just a general smile?

"You're right Jacky-boy, brains." Spot said, standing up. His smile was gone, and his blue-gray eyes were fierce again as he whipped his cane out from his belt loop. "But I got brains too, and more than just half a one. How do I know you punks won't run the first time some goon comes at ya with a club? How do I know you got what it takes to win?"

"Because I'm telling you, Spot." Jack said.

I nearly groaned. This was not going well in his favor.

Spot seemed to agree with me. "That ain't good enough Jacky-boy. You gotta show me."

"Momentai, Jack." I spoke against my will. "Besides, he does have a point. It's easy to start something as big as this, but it takes a lot of motivation to keep it going until all of the loose ends are tied."

Spot's eyes were on me in an instant. I regretted speaking, then. He wasn't as tall as David or Jack, but thanks to the fact that I was born in an Asian American family-my mom was of Filipino descent-Spot was still taller than me. Not only did he have his cane out, but he also had a sling shot, we were surrounded by wooden structure piled on top of each other, and just beyond the wooden structure were tough newsies who looked like they were just aching for a fight…or that was what it seemed like. Even though I had been trained in self defense, I knew that the odds were still stacked pretty high against me and that there was no chance of escape. If I ever did get out of Brooklyn alive, I would murder Jack in his sleep for taking me to see Spot Conlon in the first place.

"Take your hat off." He said.

I wasn't sure of what to make of the request...but if he could scare an entire city of newsies, then I knew that I didn't really have much of a choice. Sighing, I took Snipeshooter's hat off of my head and faced Spot Conlon, determined to not let him sense any fear in me.

"Who's the girl, Jacky-boy?" Spot asked, his eyes still on me. "And what the hell did she just say?"

I knew that I probably shouldn't have-we were trying to get Brooklyn on our side, not against us-but I winced at his cussing and pinched my nose bridge. Nobody seemed to notice, though.

"Our lucky four-leaf clover." Jack answered simply. "Not much of a mouth, but lots of brains and luck. And she just said a Chinese word for 'don't worry'. That's what Clover said it was, at least."

Remind me again, why did I like Jack Kelly so much after watching the movie for the first time?

Spot was still talking to Jack, but looking at me. His expression was unreadable. "Is that all you're goin' on, Jacky-boy? Luck?"

"Of course not." I retorted. "He's not that stupid."

* * *

"I cannot believe you actually think I'm some kinda lucky charm or something!" I was still fuming long after we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. "Just what kind of barbarian are you, Jack Kelly?"

"Sorry, Clove." Jack apologized as we approached the Horace Greeley statue. "I figured bringing a doll face over would soften him up a liddle, but it didn't."

"Again with the doll face pet name? Men!"

Our argument stopped as soon as Racetrack came up to us. By now, all of the newsies had returned from the other 'boroughs' as Jack had referred to them, so Ginny and Charlie were back too, having fun with Les and a handful of newsies including Mush and Crutchy.

"So Jack, where's Spot?" Racetrack asked.

"He was concerned about us being serious." Jack answered, sounding as annoyed as I felt right now. "Went as far as to think Clover was me lucky charm, or somethin'. You imagine that?"

For the umpteenth time since yesterday, I rolled my eyes and pinched my nose bridge. "You're impossible, Jack Kelly."

Racetrack looked a little uncertain at Jack's answer. "Well, Jack, maybe we ought to ease off a little. Without Spot and the others, there ain't enough of us, Jack."

"Maybe we're moving too soon." Mush said. "Maybe we ain't ready, you know?"

"I definitely think we should forget about it for a little while." Skittery responded.

"Oh, do ya?" Jack retorted. "Spot was right, is this just a game to you guys?"

My anger melted for the moment, replaced with a certain kind of hopelessness. No matter how much Spot had given me the creeps or would scare Charlie, I had to admit that he was a tough newsie, and that his joining the strike would inspire the rest of New York to follow his example-at least, that was what the other Newsies had believed.

The only person who didn't seem to give up hope was David, as he walked around the statue to start another song and lifted other newsies to their feet.

_David: Open the gates and seize the day  
Don't be afraid and don't delay_

_Nothing can break us No one can make us  
Give our rights away  
Arise and seize the day!_

_Now is the time to seize the day!_

_(Now is the time to seize the day!)_

_Send out the call and join the fray!_

_(Send out the call and join the fray!)_

_David: Wrongs will be righted if we're united_

_David and Newsies: Let us seize the day!_

_Friends of the friendless seize the day_

_(Friends of the friendless seize the day)  
_

_Raise up the torch and light the way_

_(Raise up the torch and light the way)_

_Proud and defiant, we'll slay the giant  
Let us seize the day_

_Neighbor to neighbor  
Father to son  
One for all and all for one!  
Open the gates and seize the day  
Don't be afraid and don't delay  
Nothing can break us No one can make us  
Give our rights away  
Neighbor to neighbor  
Father to son  
One for all and all for one!_

As we finished singing the song, the circulation bell began to ring.

"Anybody hear that?" Jack asked loudly.

"No!" The other newsies shouted.

"So what are we gonna do about it?"

"Soak 'em!"

That was just what we did. A handful of other newsies (or scabs, as the newsies I knew called them) were buying the papers from Weasel. Bumlets went on ahead of us with a wooden stick, waving it tauntingly at the boys. One of them dropped his papers to join us, and two of them didn't even buy any papers. The real problem began when a bug scab bought his papers and showed no sign of dropping them and joining us. He tried to get by, but the other boys kept pushing him back. Eventually, Jack actually punched the papers out of his hands, starting the fight that the boys had been so eager to get involved in.

Weasel and the Delanceys closed the window as a handful of us started throwing rotten tomatoes through the bars and at the door into the office. The newsies who had prepared to sell papers actually ran as far away from the center as possible, and a few more shoved a delivery wagon onto its side. The boys celebrated their victory by ripping up all of the papers that they could get their hands on, making war cries as they went. This went on until we heard a familiar whistle.

"Cheese it!" Jack shouted. "Cheese it, it's the bulls!"

We all managed to escape before the police could catch us and throw us in jail. It wasn't until we got back to the lodging house that we realized that someone was missing.

"Leah," Charlie started. "Where's Crutchy?"

* * *

Later that night, I went with Jack and David to the Refuge to find Crutchy. Jack was wearing his cowboy hat on his head, and he had a rope slung around his arm.

"So here it is." Jack remarked. "The Refuge. My home, sweet home."

"How can you be sure they sent him here?" I asked.

"How can I be sure the Delancey's stink? It's just how things work, you know?" Jack replied. "An orphan gets arrested, Snyder makes sure he gets sent straight here so he can rehabilitate him. The more kids in the Refuge, the more money the city sends to take care of them, the more Snyder sticks it in his pocket. He's here."

"So how come you brought the rope?" David asked.

We hid in the shadows as a carriage went through the gates. As the guard started talking with the nuns who went through, we went in.

"This is crazy." I muttered under my breath. "I mean, breaking _out_ of jail I understand. But breaking _in_?"

Once we were up on the roof, Jack tied one end of the rope around his waist and had me and David lower him down slowly so that he could reach one of the windows.

"That's good." Jack said suddenly, and we stopped lowering the rope. He tapped on the window a few times, and I strained my ears to hear what was going on.

"Hey. Cowboy." A younger voice answered to the tapping on the window. "You miss the joint?"

"What do ya say, Ten Pin. You got a new guy in here. Crutchy." Jack said.

"The gimp? I'll get him for ya." The younger voice said. After a while, we heard Crutchy's voice.

"I don't believe it." He said. "What are you hanging around here for?"

"Good one." I muttered as Jack laughed a little at the joke.

"What do you mean what am I hangin' around here for? You know who's on the roof? Dave and Clover."

"Is that so?" Crutchy lifted his voice a notch or two higher so that we could hear him. "Heya Dave! Clover! How ya doin'?"

"Shhh." David shushed him.

"Listen, Crutchy, go get your stuff. We're gonna get you outta here." Jack said.

I wasn't sure what was going on next; Crutchy's voice was too low to hear. After a while, he started talking to me and David again. "Hey, guys! You know, they still talk about how Jack rode outta here on that coach."

"You mean when he escaped the refuge by hitching a ride with Teddy Roosevelt?" I remarked.

"You already heard the story."

"You mean it's true?" David asked.

"Of course. Hey! Cheese it!"

Jack swung out of the way of the window so that we could slowly lift him back up without attracting attention. When he was back, Crutchy wasn't with him.

"What happened?" I asked. "Are we going to break Crutchy out?"

"Crutchy ain't walkin' too great right now." Jack said solemnly. "The Delanceys broke him before he was arrested."

* * *

**AN: I was really disappointed when I was unable to include Jack's taunting of Weasel and the Delanceys in the chapter, because frankly, that's just an awesome bit and I can't stop laughing when I see it. I hope I did the scene with Spot alright; he actually did scare the living daylights out of me when I saw the movie for the first time. Reviews, anyone?**


	8. Chapter 8: King of New York

** AN: Happy Easter, everyone! Not sure of how to explain it, but I somehow find it fitting that the chapter that I enjoyed working with the most gets to be posted on one of my favorite holidays =) So here it is; an Easter gift from me to you.  
**

**This chapter was a little bit more difficult; I've been trying to make the scenes look more original, but the two scenes in this one are my favorites from the movie by far because they're just so awesome that way, and I didn't really want to take away from just how fantastic they were. It's also been a while since I actually wrote a chapter that wasn't from the movie. Enjoy!**

Chapter 8: King of New York

Time: Mid-June, 1899

Charlie and Ginny refused to go back to the Jacobs' apartment that night; they both wanted to be at the lodging house when we came back with Crutchy. I wasn't sure of which cousin was the most upset to hear that Crutchy was still in the Refuge.

"It's okay, Chuck." Mush had decided to relieve me of my duties for the night and calm Charlie down after he started crying. "Crutchy will be alright, and you'll see him again soon."

"P-Promise?" Charlie sobbed.

"Listen, why don't ya sleep in me bed tonight? We'll give Clover the night off and I'll stay with ya till ya fall asleep."

Charlie did calm down not long after that, and I was really grateful to Mush for offering Charlie a place next to him for the night; whenever he got really scared or emotional, he would not be able to fall asleep at all unless somebody was in his bed with him. I wasn't sure of how any of the boys would react to something like this when the two kids demanded to stay at the lodging house for the night. But Mush had been really nice about it and offered to give me a helping hand with the kids.

Ginny didn't really cry so much as reprimand us for not being more responsible for each other...actually, 'reprimand' doesn't quite cover it.

"You should've tried to help him at the center!" She all but screamed at the top of her lungs. "The Delancey brothers wouldn't have hurt him if we had left earlier!"

"Hey, Ginger, cool it." Racetrack said. "Your brother's tryin' to sleep."

"There may have been some scab over in New Mexico who can't hear ya at the moment." Skittery remarked.

Ginny was livid as she made a dive for him, but Kid Blink and I held her back. "Come on, Ginger, ya know he wasn't serious." Kid Blink reasoned. "Besides, it wasn't anyone's fault. We all should've kept an eye on him."

"It wouldn't have been that easy, though." Swifty replied. "A lot of things were happening at once, you know."

"Alright, that's enough." Jack said. "From now on, we stick together and look after each other. Agreed?"

The boys agreed as they went to their bunks. Ginny was still mad, and I don't think it helped that she was offered Crutchy's bunk for the night. If it hadn't been for the fact that all of the boys had taken Jack's side against hers, she would've marched right on down to the Refuge to break Crutchy out herself. She did cool down enough to go to sleep though, and by the next morning she was more solemn than I had ever seen her.

"You doin' okay, Ginger?" Bumlets asked her as she joined us downstairs.

"I'm fine." She said, her face set and determined. "Let's go soak some scabs."

* * *

Jack had warned us that this day was likely to be a little more violent than yesterday was. I tried to convince Ginny and Charlie to stay outside the gates as a precaution-or join Denton, if they could. Due to fear, Charlie was the only one willing to stay out of the gates. Ginny, on the other hand, was still seeing red, and she was determined to avenge Crutchy's arrest.

"If I don't stand for my friends, I might as well be a scab." She said, much to my chagrin. Many of the boys were proud of her for saying it and took her side despite my protests.

When we reached the distribution center, we stood outside of the gates and looked up at Pulitzer's office in a solemn manner.

_Open the gates and seize the day  
Don't be afraid and don't delay  
Nothing can break us  
No one can make us  
Give our rights away  
Arise and seize the day_

Ginny and the younger boys, with their homemade percussion instruments, stepped forward. The rest of us spread out and performed some kind of dance routine. I wasn't sure of what it was supposed to do, but I had to admit that it made me feel stronger, united with my new friends, and ready for anything.

When we finished our routine, I don't think that any of us were prepared for the delivery cart that rushed through the gates, temporarily splitting the group in half. When the team got back together, a handful of boys slipping their suspenders back over their shoulders, we saw that a group of newsies was looking at us, unsure of what to do. One or two of them looked a little smug, for some reason. On our side, the newsies were just aching for a fight. Ginny was actually rubbing her knuckles.

"Alright. Everyone remain calm." David said loudly.

I think one or two of us actually looked at him like he was crazy. Jack had been one of them.

"Let's soak 'em for Crutchy!" He shouted.

The boys all but happily obliged. We rushed through the gates into the center, chasing the boys back in. One or two of them banged on the doors behind them…revealing some huge men with chains and clubs in their hands.

"Whoa! Jack!" Racetrack shouted, panicked. "Jack, it's the Crib!"

Many of us rushed back to the gates, but a handful of men pushed them shut, locking us in. Denton and Charlie had been at the gates and were trying to help, but a policeman on a horse was egging them back. The men formed a circle around Jack so that none of us could help him. Oscar and Morris Delancey were two of them.

"Heya Jacky-boy." Oscar said a little too gleefully, causing him to back into the circle of men.

I was very glad that Charlie hadn't been here with us, or he would've cried, peed his pants, whimpered, anything to show his fear. I couldn't find Ginny, though; one of the men had his arm around my throat, preventing me from going anywhere to look for her. I was about to give up hope when, out of the blue, a bunch of newsies appeared on the rooftops, including none other than Spot Conlon.

"Never fear, Brooklyn is here." He announced.

"It's Brooklyn!" Mush shouted, smiling widely.

This was where the real fight began. The Brooklyn newsies used their sling shots to shoot marbles at the men, causing them to fall back and give the newsies a chance to fight back. Not far away from where I was, Racetrack was throwing his hands in the air and sitting on a ledge just as one of the men made to punch him.

"Hey, I give up. Alright, alright. I give up." That was when he kicked the guy right where it hurts before punching him right in the face.

I broke free from whoever was holding me, but just as I was moving to find Ginny, I was suddenly grabbed by Oscar Delancey. He stank more than the other guy did. Fortunately, Spot had swung down and kicked the guy holding me, knocking us both down. I recovered quickly and kicked Oscar in the face as hard as I could.

"Thanks, Conlon!" I shouted at the leader of Brooklyn, who nodded to me before spit shaking with Jack.

I finally found Ginny staying close to David, trying to keep him safe. She was ruthlessly punching the men right where it hurts, and I had to hand it to her, she really knew how to fight and she was ready to go for the kill each and every time. Knowing that she was in good hands, I looked around for newsies who could use a helping hand and punched/kicked accordingly.

After a while, Spot opened the gates so that the Brooklyn gang could join him, chanting "Brooklyn!" He took his cane out from his belt loop, and the look on his face was so fierce that I was glad that I hadn't made him mad enough to hit me with it yesterday. In no time at all, we were back to cheering and ripping up newspapers.

Newsies: Two. Pulitzer: Zero.

* * *

The next day, Jack gave us the day off from giving Pulitzer a hard time; he felt like today was the day to celebrate. Ginny's hand had been in a little rough shape from the fight, so I used a majority of the morning to nurse it back to good health and show her and Charlie how to form the best fist to use to punch. I also showed them a move or two that I had learned from my martial arts lessons. I didn't think that Charlie would ever try to pick a fight with the Crib after what he had witnessed today, but it seemed appropriate to keep him prepared, just in case if someone else decided to pick on him and I wouldn't be able to protect him. I hadn't really thought about any of this until we were attacked yesterday, and even though we had the day off I wasn't willing to take any chances.

Later that day, we were at Tibby's having a fantastic lunch. Denton promised to pay for all of us, so every Newsie in Manhattan agreed to it. Even Spot was with us. I had been right about Charlie being afraid of him; he refused to move his face away from my shoulder until Denton came with the article.

"Hey fellas. Hey, hey! Big time." Denton showed the _New York Sun_ off for everyone to see before putting down in front of Jack. Since I was sitting next to him, I had no trouble seeing the picture and reading the headline:

'The Children's Crusade; Newsies Stop the World'

All of the newsies gathered around the table to see.

"What you got there Jack?"

"Where's me picture? Where's me picture?"

"What's that? That all about us?"

"Look at that Jack. You look like a general or something."

"Where does it say my name? Where's my name?"

"Will you quit thinking about yourself?"

"You got us on the front page!" Ginny exclaimed. She was grateful for this journalist, as were the rest of us.

"You got yourselves on the front page." Denton corrected her. "I just got to make sure you stay there."

"So what?" Skittery, as glum as normal, said lazily from over my head. "You get your picture in the papes, so what's that get you, huh?"

None of us appreciated that comment, and a lot of objections were sent his way.

"What's the matta wichu?" Racetrack asked him. "You're in the papes, you're famous. You're famous, you get anything you want. That's what so great about New York!"

The boys all agreed to his words. And yes, another song was born there.

_Mush: A pair of new shoes with matching laces_

_Racetrack: A permanent box at Sheepshed Races_

_Spot: A porcelain tub with boiling water_

_Kid Blink: A Saturday night with the mayor's daughter!_

_Racetrack: Look at me, I'm the King of New York!  
Suddenly I'm respectable  
Staring right atcha  
Lousy with stature_

_Jack: Nubbin' with all the muckety-mucks  
I'm blowin' my dough and goin' deluxe!_

_Racetrack: And there I'll be  
Ain't I pretty?_

_Racetrack & Jack: It's my city I'm the king of New York!_

_Boots: A corduroy suit with fitted knickers_

_Les: A mezzanine seat to see the flickers_

_Snipeshooter: Havana cigars that cost a quarter_

_Leah: An editor's desk for the star reporter!_

_Newsies: Tip your hat  
He's the King of New York!_

_Denton: How 'bout that?  
I'm the King of New York!_

_Newsies: In nothing flat  
He'll be covering Brooklyn to Trenton  
Our man Denton_

_Kid Blink: Making a headline out of a hunch_

_Denton: Protecting the weak_

_Charlie: And paying for lunch_

_Denton: When I'm at bat Strong men crumble_

_Ginny: Proud yet humble_

_Ginny, Charlie, & Denton: He's/I'm the King of New York_

_Newsies: I'll be either dead or dreaming_

'_Cuz look at that pape with my face beaming_

_Tomorrow they may wrap fishes in it_

_But I was a star for one whole minute!_

_Starting now I'm the King of New York!_

_Denton: Ain't you heard? I'm the King of New York!_

_Newsies: Holy cow! It's a miracle_

_Pulitzer's crying Weasel? He's dying!_

_Flashpots are shooting bright as the sun_

_I'm one hifalutin' sonuva gun!_

_Don't ask me how_

_Fortune found me fate just crowned me_

_Now I'm King of New York!_

_Look and see_

_Once a piker, now a striker_

_I'm the King of New York!_

_Victory! Front page story_

_Guts and glory_

_I'm the King of New York!_

We cheered once more when the song was done. The workers in the restaurant gave us a lot of looks, but they didn't say anything about it.

"So, let's have some ideas." Jack said finally, signaling for the other newsies for quiet.

"Well, we gotta show people where we stand." David pointed out.

"Yeah, so we gotta stay in the papes." Jack agreed.

"Do those two always point out the obvious?" I heard Ginny ask one of the other newsies.

"My paper's the only one printing any strike news so far." Denton told us.

"So, we should do something that's so big the other papers will feel stupid if they try to ignore us." Jack said, his mind at work. "Like a rally. A newsie rally with all the kids from all over New York. It'll be the biggest, loudest, noisiest blow-out this town's ever seen!"

"We'll send a message to the big boys." David agreed.

One of the waiters held a tray of glasses of cokes for us, which we each took gratefully.

"There's a lot of us, and we ain't going away." Jack said. "We'll fight until damn Doomsday if it means we get a fair shake."

"I'll thank you to watch your language around my cousins, Jack Kelly!" I hissed at Jack.

"Momentai, Clover." Jack shrugged.

"Hey, guys." David silenced us, holding up his glass of coke. "To our man Denton."

We each held out our glasses in a similar fashion. "Our man Denton!"

* * *

**AN: You bet I had fun working on this chapter! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed working with it! =D Oh, even nearly twenty years later these newsie songs never get old. Reviews would be quite lovely, thank you in advance. But don't stop reading now; there's more, lots more!**


	9. Chapter 9: The Eye of the Hurricane

**AN: Told you there was more. Not sure about how this chapter turned out, but I think it turned out better than it could have. Anyways, enjoy =D**

**Disclaimer: Newsies is not mine.**

Chapter Nine: The Eye of the Hurricane

Time: Mid-June, 1899

Spot decided to spend the night at our lodging house. When I asked Racetrack about it, he just said that the two borough leaders needed to discuss something that hadn't been taken care of the day before. At first, I figured it was just about where Spot's loyalties were; just because he helped us out, it didn't mean that he was all for the strike. However, I was the leverage for a successful rally and did not realize it until David and Jack brought it up some time after lunch.

"I'm sorry," I looked at them disbelievingly. "How does Spot Conlon-or really anyone, for that matter-go into a room to talk with a couple of guys for two minutes to talk about the rally and then come out with a _date_? Also, why am _I _the date?"

"Hey, it's your fault you're such a dame, Clover." Jack teased.

"Do not give me any of that crud, Jack Kelly." I hissed. "I promised to help with the strike, but I never said anything about being your leverage to get Spot Conlon to join us. And frankly, I'd rather be eaten alive by snakes than be anyone's date for the rally."

"I'm sorry Leah, but we're getting desperate." David said calmly. "Besides, the three of us agreed that you'd be safer if Spot kept an eye on you. We don't know what might happen at the rally, but it's not safe for a girl to be at that kind of rally alone."

"David, I came here all the way from Michigan, took martial arts lessons, and threw more punches and kicks at the last soaking without so much as breaking a sweat. I think that I can handle whatever any drunken newsie has to throw at me."

"We're not talkin' about booze at the rally, Clover." Jack said, looking at me a little too sternly. "We're talkin' about the bulls."

I immediately regretted what I said about the newsies getting drunk at the rally. And as I thought back to what I could remember from the movie, I definitely remembered the newsies getting attacked. There was no way that I would win this argument.

"Okay, fine." I gave up. "If I have to be the one to lull Spot into joining the strike, then so be it. But if he tries anything funny, then I'm heading back to the lodging house alone."

"Deal."

* * *

Later that night, the majority of the newsies were making signs to get ready for the rally tomorrow night. Even Mr. Kloppman was supporting the rally by helping these newsies with the signs and giving them whatever money he could give for the strike fund. I made a mental note to add a few of my dollars into the fund.

Spot, oddly enough, was giving a hand too. Whether he was just bored or he honestly supported the strike or for whatever other reason there was, I wasn't sure...that is, until he started asking me questions.

"So why'd they call ya Clover?" He started.

By this time, I was mixing the paint in the back room so that we would have more white paint to use for the wooden signs.

"Shouldn't you ask Jack Kelly that?" I replied evenly. "He was the one who came up with it, not me."

"So what made 'im think you were a lucky charm?"

"He said that he had a really good day of selling the newspapers when my cousins and I came along, even though the best headline we had was 'Baby born with two heads'." I answered, recalling my first day of selling newspapers with the newsies.

"But you don't think that you're as lucky as he says."

It wasn't a question; more like an obvious statement. I shrugged as I took the new white paint back into the lobby. "It helped him more that he had Les and two other kids selling half of his papers."

"So what brings you all the way from Michigan?"

"Why all the questions, all of a sudden?" I asked as I set the paint down and turned to face him. Spot didn't really scare me that much anymore; now that I knew that I was his 'date' for the rally, he seemed to annoy me more than anything else.

"I'm just gettin' to know my date for the rally." He said nonchalantly. "It's my duty as the King of New York to know every newsie."

"King of New York?" I repeated, scoffing.

"Why do you think the newsies need my permission to continue the strike?" Spot pointed out. "Why do you think everyone's afraid of me? Why do the other newsies call me the king of Brooklyn? It's my responsibility to know what's goin' on in New York when it comes to the newsies."

I had to give him credit; he was better at being the patient leader of the newsies than I thought he would be. I was about to snap with a good retort when Charlie was suddenly right next to me, shaking.

"What's wrong, Charlie?" I asked the kid, pulling him away so that he would face me.

"The warden." He muttered with wide eyes.

Spot and I looked up to see Warden Snyder at the counter, going through the list of names of the newsies staying at the lodging house. I could see why he scared Charlie so much; his eyes gave the illusion that they had virtually no pupils. Mr. Kloppman, who was helping Dutchy with a 'strike' sign, had also seen Snyder.

"Excuse me." Mr. Kloppman said, gently taking the book out of Snyder's hands. "Can I help you?"

"You have a boy who calls himself Jack Kelly?" Snyder said with an eerily low voice. "I wish to see him."

"Jack Kelly?" Mr. Kloppman repeated, sounding vague as he appeared to run the name through his mind. "Never heard of him. Any of you boys ever hear of a Jack Kelly?" He added to the other newsies.

I found myself wondering if Mr. Kloppman had even been a newsie when he was a boy, because he was good at lying.

"Kelly?" I repeated, trying to sound as nonchalant as I could. "Doesn't sound familiar to me."

"That's an unusual name for these parts." Specs added to the lie.

Our cover had almost been blown when Jack came into the lodging house, but Swifty and several other newsies by the door stopped him and pointed Snyder out to Jack, whispering things that no one centimeters away would be able to hear.

"Oh, you mean Jack Kelly." Racetrack piped up, standing next to me, Spot and Charlie. "Yeah, he was here, but he put an egg in his shoe and beat it."

The boys laughed at this remark, while Jack used the interruption as an excuse to slip behind Snyder. He wasn't able to get to the stairs, but he did get right behind Snyder just in time.

"I have reason to believe he's an escaped prisoner, possibly dangerous." Snyder explained to Mr. Kloppman.

"Oh, dangerous?" Mr. Kloppman repeated. If I hadn't seen Jack's silent laughter behind Snyder, I would've thought that Mr. Kloppman actually believed Snyder's lie. "I better look in my files. This way please."

Jack slipped out of the lodging house just before Snyder faced him as Mr. Kloppman seemingly beckoned him closer. What he actually did was motion for the other newsies to cover for Jack, which they did using their 'strike' signs.

"Give to the Newsies Strike fund, Mister?" Racetrack asked at the front of the boys, looking like a sorry little kid.

Racetrack would've convinced me to give money to the fund, but apparently he hadn't convinced a greedy man like Snyder, who gave him only a single coin before following Mr. Kloppman out of the room.

"It's okay, Charlie." I whispered once we were sure that Snyder was out of earshot. "It was close, but Jack got out alright."

"Where do you think he would go?" He asked me.

"Probably back to the Jacobs' apartment." I answered, remembering a scene on the roof between Jack and Sarah. "But I think now I see what he and David were talking about when they told me what was going to happen at the rally."

"What's going to happen?" Charlie asked.

I remembered that I had an audience, and I turned to the other newsies, who were watching us intently.

"Do you mind?" I snapped at them, seriously annoyed.

No one responded, but they got back to work. Even Spot gave us a moment alone once Ginny joined us.

"What were you two talking about?" She asked me.

"Okay, I need you both to listen to what I have to say." I whispered, getting on my knees so that I would be eye level with them. "I don't know exactly what's going to happen (which was technically true), but I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of Snyder. He might show up at the rally with the bulls, and I don't think that they're going to hold back this time. There could be physical violence, and after what happened the last time we soaked the distribution center, I don't believe for a minute that these guys are going to exercise restraint because you're both children."

"We beat them once." Ginny protested.

"We got lucky once." I reminded her. "If Brooklyn hadn't shown up when they did, I don't think that we would've won that battle."

"Are you saying that we can't go to the rally tomorrow night?" Charlie groaned.

I looked at him, surprised. "I would've thought that you wouldn't mind staying behind with Mr. Kloppman after hearing that you might get attacked."

"Well, I watched you all fight the scabs when Spot Conlon helped, and it made me feel bad for not wanting to do more." Charlie admitted, ignoring the look I gave him when he said 'scabs'. "Everybody was talking about how great it was to be involved in the action and get their picture in the pape, and I felt like I was being selfish when I said I wanted to stay out. I feel like we need to be at that rally."

"Is that how you really feel?" I asked him. "Are you really sure you want to be at that rally? I can't be there all of the time to make sure you're okay, and I can't even guarantee that you won't get hurt if you go."

Charlie looked hesitant, but he nodded.

"Is that how you feel too, Ginny?" I turned to the older cousin.

"Absolutely." Ginny did not wait for even a second to say this. "After what the Delanceys did to Crutchy, I don't want to miss a thing. I stand with the newsies, and I fight with the newsies no matter what."

I felt as though there was something else that she was keeping from me, but for the moment I disregarded the feeling.

"All right." I relented. "But I'm only letting you go because Les and Sarah will be there too. But because neither of them are experienced fighters, the boys agreed to get them out of the theater at the first sign of trouble. And I want you to stay as close to Mush or Denton as you possibly can-if nothing else, they can keep you safe. And if there is any sign of trouble at all, get Mush to take you back to the lodging house. Don't walk back alone, and don't try to stick around if the bulls do get there. Are we understood?"

They both look as though they wanted to protest, but they knew that I only wanted them to be safe. And that was the last word we shared about what was supposed to happen at the rally.

**AN: Good gravy, there's going to be more chapters in this story than I figured there would be. Not complaining on this end, though; that's just what makes this story so fun to work with, because it's so unpredictable that way.**

**Also, you'll get to know Leah very well in the next chapter before the rally. A lot of things are going to happen that seem a little out of character for some of the newsies, but that's just setting up so that I can share some of Leah's past and bring her character out a little more in the story. As always, reviews are nice and this will be updated in a week!**


	10. Chapter 10: Feelings

**AN: As promised, the next chapter has arrived. Heads up, though; there was a lot that I wanted to get into this chapter, so it's much longer than the average chapter that I've worked with for this story. I'm not used to making chapters over ten pages (on Word Document, at least), so yes this is definitely new to me. Also, there's a wee bit of mature content in this one. You have been warned.  
**

** Disclaimer: I own Leah, Ginny, Charlie, and other characters that hadn't been mentioned until now. Everyone else belongs to Disney.**

Chapter Ten: Feelings

Time: End of June, 1899

"You want me to do _what?_" I repeated in shock. "I don't care if the other girls will be wearing them, or if it's just to make the leverage bit for the king of Brooklyn complete. I am _not_ buying a dress!"

It was the next day, and we had another day off from harassing Pulitzer. We were heading to breakfast when Jack pulled me aside to let me in on some more annoying news.

"We don't have enough bits to buy a dress, Clover." Jack explained calmly. "I already talked to Medda this morning on my way here, and she says she'll have one for you and Ginny to use for the rally."

"Just because I am a girl doesn't mean that I have to dress like one." I snapped. "You only said that I had to hang out with Spot for the night, and that it was for my own protection. You didn't say anything about wearing a corset for him _or_ showing myself off for him!"

Okay, I never modeled for anyone or wore a corset. I was grateful for it, too; models always looked hungry, and those corsets looked painful. I did, however, wear something underneath a dress for senior prom that made me feel as though I were wearing a corset (by my mother's suggestion, not mine) and it hurt beyond crud, too.

"Look, the protectin' bit was a cover that Spot suggested hisself." Jack told me. "We agreed to it so you could use your luck to-"

"Hey, I didn't volunteer for this." I hissed. "As I recall, I was minding my own business when you had the gall to refer to me as your 'lucky charm.' I agreed to go with him as his date _just_ for the sake of getting you and David off my back about needing protection. I never agreed to _flirt_ with him!"

Racetrack seemed to be listening to our conversation, because he joined in. "Whatsa matta wid Spot?" He asked. "Spot's tough, good-lookin', and he's the most respected newsie in New York. What's not to like about 'im?"

I was a bit taken aback by Racetrack's comment. I did have to admit that Spot was a nice guy, and that there was a reason for him being as respected as he was. I just wasn't attracted to him at all, mostly because someone ruined romance for me quite a bit. But I didn't really feel like telling them that story.

"Well…I hadn't really noticed, I guess." I sighed. "Okay, I'll at least look presentable for Spot. Is that good enough?"

"Thanks, Clove." Jack sighed in relief.

* * *

It kind of sucked to be a girl. Jack had insisted that Mush and Racetrack take Ginny and me to go to Medda's place to get ready for the rally. An hour earlier than most reasonable people do. An upside to Jack: as a leader, he's willing to do whatever he can to make something happen. A downside to him: I was the one who had to pay dearly for it.

Ginny didn't seem to mind going to Irving Hall; even though she had a tough exterior, she liked getting dressed up for special occasions. I liked Medda, but I did not like wearing dresses. I had grown out it when I was Charlie's age, and since then I had only agreed to wear dresses three times: my graduation, homecoming, and senior prom.

"So why don't ya like lookin' nice, Clover?" Mush asked me.

I shrugged. "I just don't really feel like myself when I wear them. When I was growing up, my mother preferred that I be more like a lady: prim, proper, well-mannered, well-dressed, you get the picture. After a while, I didn't mind it. But as I got older…I dunno, it just wasn't so fun anymore."

"Is that why ya ran away from home?" Racetrack asked.

I paused, not sure of how much to tell him. "Well…it's one reason, I guess. Our family was extremely conservative; we couldn't do anything wrong, or our reputation would be put into jeopardy. It seemed okay when I was a child, but as I got older I felt more like I was an ornament in my family. I was meant to look nice and to say things about myself that I didn't really mean, just to create the illusion that the Brinks family was picture perfect."

Ginny didn't say much; we never talked much about what we were going to say about our lives back home. I didn't really know how much she knew about how I felt towards my family, but part of me knew that she understood; her parents were more conservative than mine were, and her father had just recently started a community church. In a sense, it actually felt as though I was telling them the truth; I wasn't really sure if I ever did want to go back to Michigan.

"At least ya had a family." Mush said nonchalantly. "I haven' seen me mudder or fadder since I was four."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"

"We know ya mean' nuttin' by it." Racetrack said. "Lots of us are runaways too, and sometimes we forget what it's like to not have a family. Though not many of us took our cousins wit' us when we ran off."

"We lived in a small town." Ginny said for me. "My dad was the editor for an unsuccessful newspaper, and since Charlie and I didn't get along with other kids very well, my mom taught us herself. Our family had also just started a church with the people in our neighborhood, so it just added to how tired and poor we felt every weekend. So when Leah came and said that she was heading to New York to find herself, we thought we'd be doing the family a favor by joining her."

"I couldn't just leave Ginny and Charlie behind." I admitted honestly. "They were like the little brother and sister that I always wanted, but never had."

I wasn't sure of what was running through Mush and Racetrack's minds, but they didn't ask any more questions about our lives back home. So instead, we changed the subject to how we liked being newsies so far, what the rally would be like, what the other boroughs were, etc. I had almost forgotten what we were going to Medda for until we actually got to Irving Hall.

Medda was rehearsing a dance number when we were inside the theater. It didn't escape my attention that Racetrack and Mush were smiling widely and had their hats off. So apparently Medda was admired by all of the newsies.

"Well hello, Racetrack, Mush!" She greeted heartily when she saw us. "I was wondering when I'd see the newsies again, it's been a while!"

"It is a pleasure to see you too, yer honor." Mush drawled out in a bit of a flirting tone, and Racetrack made a deep bowing motion. I would've laughed right then, but I didn't get the chance when her attention was turned on me and Ginny.

"I remember you two, you're the newest newsies." Medda smiled at us. "Jack told me you would be coming by."

"It's nice to see you again, Miss Larkson." Ginny answered shyly.

"Oh, just Medda will be fine, Gin." Medda said. "Don't worry, I've got everything arranged and I've found the best outfits for both of you. Follow me, please."

I knew without a doubt that there would be no way to get out of wearing a dress, Medda was just too nice to even try to argue with. So Ginny and I followed her backstage after Mush and Racetrack told Medda that they were just dropping us off and that they were looking forward to seeing her again later tonight.

"So how are you both enjoying being newsies so far?" Medda asked us when the boys were gone.

"Hard to say." I answered. "So far, we've only been involved in one day of selling and the other days helping out with the strike."

"I like it." Ginny responded. "The boys are fun to be with, and they've taught me a lot."

I almost pinched my nose bridge then; I knew she was thinking about the words that I was almost positive that her parents wouldn't approve of, and the words that I knew for a fact that her parents wouldn't want her saying.

"Well, I'm glad you like it." Medda said as we reached the dressing room.

I had only been in a stage dressing room a handful of times back in high school, but I didn't think that the dressing room Medda had would be so…pink. There were so many pink dresses and costumes that I was nearly blinded by the sight. Medda didn't notice my hesitation, as she and Ginny went farther in. I stumbled around as my eyes struggled to adjust to the drastic change in color.

"Leah, I have your dress in the back." Medda said to me, pointing towards the curtain. "It's the blue one on the adult mannequin. I'll work with Ginny's hair while you change, and I'll let you know when I'm ready for you."

"Thanks." I said. Being careful not to step on anything, I made my way for the curtain and gently pulled it aside. I found the mannequin she had mentioned…and I was really surprised by what I saw.

The dress that Medda had chosen for me was a deep royal blue, and it was the way that I liked it and more; nice, clean, simple, and yet it was indescribable. Instead of puffing out, the skirt of the dress had two layers and looked flexible enough for me to run in. The sleeves were see-through with cuffs on the end. There was another layer of cloth on the bosom part of the bodice, and lace decorated the collar of the dress delicately.

My first fear was that I would rip it, and my second was that I wouldn't fit in it. But when push comes to shove, I remembered that I was doing this for the newsies. So I carefully slipped my shirt and jeans off before going into the dress, which fit me so nicely that I was absolutely amazed. When I was done, I sighed as I remembered the last time I had voluntary worked so hard to get a boy's attention…

FLASHBACK:

Time: April 24, 2011

It was the night of senior prom, and I was sitting at a table with my friends, watching the rest of the seniors dancing the night away. While my friends were attempting to play a game of euchre, I was looking through photos on my camera that had been taken of the dance. I flipped back to a self portrait that had been taken of me just to satisfy my mother and Jana, who were both dying to see me in a dress, and sighed.

I felt like I was overdoing it a little too much. The dress that I had chosen was a sparkling forest green, which ended at the floor and emphasized my curves nicely. Though I did like the dress, I had also added a shawl because the dress showed more of my shoulders than I liked. My hair was in a curled ponytail, and a red rose showed just barely from behind my ear. I was also wearing make up for the first time ever, and it seemed much too overdone. I sighed again, pinching my nose bridge. The only reason I had agreed to do any of this was to impress my high school boyfriend, Drew Corrigan.

It's not like he was abusive, but he just had an odd way of showing that he cared at all. I didn't even know where he was at at the moment, and frankly I didn't care. Just an hour ago, we had argued about me going to college: he thought I was too much of a simpleton to go to college and needed to live with him where 'I would be safe', and I told him flat out that I was not going to live with him unless we were married, partially because of my religious beliefs and partially because I knew for a fact that living with a boyfriend would not cause the relationship to benefit at all. Drew did not take that very well, and I hadn't seen him since our argument.

"You okay, Leah?" One of my best friends, Alexa, asked me, looking around her boyfriend to see me.

"Momentai, Alex." I smiled at her, standing up. "Just need to use the bathroom for a moment. I'll be right back."

My friends spared me a glance before returning to the game.

From the corner of my eye I saw Joey Masen, one of my newer friends, walking my direction from the dance floor. Joey Masen was, to say the least, a friend that I hadn't really chosen myself. He was the kind of guy that every girl wanted to date: good looking, athletic, tall, muscular, nice to everyone, and thoughtful. But sometimes, he was just a little too naïve for his own good. I was a little annoyed when he tried to be my friend, because I was almost sure that he wanted something from me that I just wouldn't be able to give him. Don't get me wrong; I wouldn't call him a womanizer. Joey seemed to be more the kind of guy who tried to be everyone's friend. And in truth, I did want to be his friend. I was still dealing with my jerk of a boyfriend, however, and wasn't really in the mood to deal with people of the opposite gender.

"Hey, Leah." He said to me, wearing his usual friendly smile. I nearly missed it, the atmosphere was so loud, and I was partially deaf in one ear.

"Hey, Joe." I spared him a small smile before making to go to the women's restroom-that is, trying to. He stopped me, however, by putting his hand on my shoulder and leaning towards me slightly so that I could hear whatever it was that he had to say.

"I just wanted to say that you look beautiful tonight." Joey said (kind of in my ear because the atmosphere was so loud from the music and other stuff going on), his friendly smile not leaving his face.

I was stunned. NO one had ever used that word to describe me before. And he had a girlfriend! Why in the world was he trying to hit on ME?

"Just who do you think you are?" I hissed before I shoved his hand off of my shoulder and stomped into the restroom...a move that I immediately regretted. Inside the bathroom, I could hear the sounds of two people making out and groaning in a stall, occasionally whispering to each other. I was about to immediately leave and go to a chaperone when I heard the girl's voice whispering between kisses:

"Aren't you worried about Leah finding out about us?" She had asked before being interrupted by another kiss.

"Forget Leah." Drew Corrigan's voice grunted from the stall. "She's too stupid to figure out where I am right now."

END FLASHBACK

Time: End of June, 1899

I sighed once more. Later that night, I had seen Joey talking to his girlfriend at another table, looking somewhat concerned and hurt by my actions, and I felt bad, not just for my reaction but for trying so hard to push him away. I decided then that I couldn't let Drew affect how I am towards other people. Good thing, too; the day after the senior prom, I found out that Drew's rendezvous in the woman's bathroom had started a public relationship between him and his bed buddy (even though I figured out later that they had been sleeping together since the first time I refused to have sex with him) and he _wouldn't stop talking about her._ She always seemed to be around him any time I saw him, and his Facebook status always said something about being with 'the lovely Mindy'. Needless to say, whatever friendship I did have with the guy fell apart.

With Joey, though…well, what can I say? We continued to stay in touch, and we even had band class together when we started college. He had forgiven me when I apologized for my reaction at the senior prom, and we continued to get to know each other pretty well. Nowadays I consider him one of my closest friends, even though he had used that word again to describe my appearance when we had a band concert last February.

Through it all, I wasn't exactly sure of how I felt about him. I had tried to convince myself to not fall for a guy who was so popular among other girls, but I did anyways. And I had absolutely no idea of what to do about it. He had split with his girlfriend sometime in the summer after we graduated, but I still had the fear in my head that he only talked to me and tried to be my friend out of pity, and that he would grow to like another girl that I knew for a fact would be more beautiful than I was, regardless of anything that Joey would ever say to me.

"Leah, are you ready?" Medda called.

I was snapped out of my reverie, and I shook my head. Now was not the time to think about Joey…especially if I didn't know if I would ever see him again. I pushed the curtain aside so that Ginny could come in to change.

"I like your dress." Ginny told me with a smile.

"I like your hair." I countered. Medda had good taste; Ginny's dirty-blonde hair had become soft and shiny, and there was something about it that seemed to glow. Medda had tied most of it in a simple ponytail, but left some of the hair out of the ponytail to frame her face.

When Ginny went in to change, I greeted Medda and thanked her for the dress. Medda smiled as she began to run a comb through my brown hair. "Jack told me all about you, and I figured that you would like it." She said. "And I think it looks lovely on you. Spot Conlon won't be able to look away tonight."

Spot Conlon. I remembered the reason why I was doing this, and I did my best to refrain from rolling my eyes or pinching my nose bridge. "Thank you, Medda."

"So I hear you're from Michigan."

"That's right. I was born and raised in the Grand Rapids area." Though I felt bad for having to lie to Medda (somewhat), I was grateful for the subject change.

"So what brought you here to New York?"

"Well…I just needed to get out on my own and see the country for myself, I guess." I answered as honestly as I could. The newsies were one thing, but Medda was just too nice. "I wanted to be a story writer, and I figured that the best way to improve my writing skills would be to see and learn about as much of the world as I could."

For the next hour and a half, Medda asked me about my life in Michigan and how I liked New York so far, and I in turn asked her about her life. She took the entire time straightening my hair and getting all of the tangles out of it; my hair was quite thick and bushy, not to mention I hadn't really gotten the chance to work with it at all over the last few days. After a while, the conversation started to turn a little more private than I think that I could take.

"You know, Leah, many of the newsies are runaways like you." Medda said. "I take them all in and think of them as my sons and daughters because many of them need a mother to love them. So why don't you describe your mother to me, both the good and the bad things?"

This was a request that I had never heard of before. I didn't really know what to make of it, and I honestly didn't know where she was going with this.

"My mother…well, I told her everything when I was growing up." I answered honestly. "She was the one that I trusted the most when I was a kid, and the one that I looked up to more than anyone. And in some ways, she still is."

"But?"

"Well…she always wanted me to be a good person, so that was who I tried to be. But as I got older, her expectations of me got a little more tedious and too much for me to take. She wanted me to be this socialite kind of person, and appearances always mattered to her. After a while, I always felt as though I was letting her down by never giving her the perfect daughter that she always wanted; pretty, studious, and social."

"You don't consider yourself any of those things?"

"Well, there are lots of people who are bound to be prettier and smarter than I am, regardless of who my mother wants me to be." I said. "And I used to be so agoraphobic when I was a child that I still sometimes get so guarded around people that I don't know very well."

Medda was silent as she started pulling on my hair, and I could tell that she had started to do something else with it. "You would get along very well with Jack, you know." She said finally. "Jack was in your shoes back when his father was here; always trying to fulfill his every whim and command. When his father…left, the pressure was put on him by the law, as you know. When he got out of jail and became the newsie leader of Manhattan, the pressure was put on him by the boys. Jack didn't seem to mind it so much from the boys, because they never actually expected anything from him except who he was. But it became so much for him because he had to look after everyone himself, and he had always wanted to go west but wasn't able to because of his responsibilities."

I was silent as I took everything in. It still didn't seem to answer my question of why Jack would later come back to New York for good. "Jack seems to be doing a good job of hiding it from everyone else."

Medda's smile returned. "Everyone has a choice, and Jack will make his in due time. The key is to think of whether anyone really would be happy with their decision if the ones that they love are involved. Well, you're done. What do you think?"

I looked into the mirror…and was surprised, to say the least. Medda had done my hair in a similar fashion to Ginny, but instead of a ponytail she had done a braid that curled around my neck and rested on my shoulder. I had always had a hard time getting my long hair to not look so wavy, but today it looked shinier and softer than it had almost any other day. Overall, the look was just the way I liked to appear on a day to day basis; nice, clean, simple. At the same time, I looked exactly like the kind of person that I wanted to be; independent, strong, confident…and beautiful. That word again...

"Thank you, Medda." I said somewhat breathlessly, as though I had just run a marathon.

"You're welcome." Medda said happily. "Ginny, are you ready?"

I turned around to see Ginny come out from behind the curtain. I gave her a warm smile; she looked amazing. Her dress was white with thin green stripes at the ends of the two layers of her skirt. A green sash was tied around her waist, and her puffy white sleeves also had thin green stripes on them. It was just right for her complexion and hair color.

"You look great." I told her honestly.

"Well, I have to get ready for the dance number, so you two go on ahead and go downstairs." Medda said. "The rally will be starting soon."

We both said our thanks to her before heading back to the theater.

"I overheard what you were saying to Medda." Ginny said to me.

I gulped. I usually didn't share my emotions with anyone, especially not Ginny or Charlie because I didn't want to depress them with my story.

Ginny didn't seem mad, though. "Don't you realize that you're exactly what you said Aunt Tanya wanted you to be? You are pretty. You are smart. And you have gotten more social than you were three years ago."

I shook my head. "Not compared to other people that I've met."

"Well maybe you should stop comparing yourself to other people and learn to see you as you are." Ginny said, still not angry.

Needless to say, I was taken aback by what she had said. I had never thought of it that way before. And the more I thought about it, the more I had realized that it was so true. I just wasn't used to taking compliments from other people because I always had the recurring thought in my head that there was always someone else who was better than I was, someone who was worthier of the praises than I was.

When we returned to the theater, some of the boys-mostly Brooklyn and Manhattan-were already coming in, with their signs held high and ready. They were all wearing nice clothes for the rally…well, nicer than they usually wear. I couldn't see Jack, David or Spot, so I stayed with Ginny when she went to look for Mush. We found him in a seat close to the front, right next to one of the aisles, sitting next to Racetrack and Charlie.

"Hiya Ginger, Clover." He greeted us heartily. "You two look great!"

Charlie and Racetrack echoed Mush's compliment, Racetrack looking at me with a wink. "Spot's going to be very pleased wichu, doll."

I grimaced at the reminder, but nodded my thanks regardless. "Is he here?"

"He's talkin' to Jack and Davey backstage." Mush answered. "They got a table here to themselves, and Les and Sarah are there. Shall I take ya to them?"

I nodded and smiled gratefully. My smile started to fall as he led me to the back of the theater, thinking back to Ginny's words and realizing how much I did miss my family and friends…especially my mother. What had I done?

**AN: Yikes, that chapter was definitely longer than I figured it would be.**** But it was great to work with this chapter, because I think that I was really able to work with the background of Leah's character in ways that I wasn't necessarily able to in the other chapters. Sorry about the slight corniness Leah's story had, but a majority of that actually did happen to a really good friend of mine who got some nice revenge on her ex-boyfriend for cheating on her and is now rather happily engaged to her best friend =D. Let the story of my friend and her future husband be a lesson to you guys: do NOT cheat on your significant others, and in the long run it pays to be honest and nice to everyone you meet =)  
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**You see that link on the bottom that says 'review'? Click on it. Now.  
**


	11. Chapter 11: Chaos

**AN: Finally, the rally! I've been itching to get to working with this scene since doing the King of New York chapter, but the story just keeps getting longer than I anticipate. This is a story that is definitely keeping me on my toes, and it's absolutely fantastic. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed working with it **

** Disclaimer: Leah, Ginny and Charlie are mine. Everything else is Disney's.**

Chapter 11: Chaos

Time: End of June, 1899

The theater filled up not long after I joined Les and Sarah in the back. Sarah was dressed in a way that my mother would definitely approve of had we lived in this time period. It's not that I minded; Sarah was so nice, homely, and she was definitely pretty enough to pull it off. I just couldn't help but be a bit jealous of her; she was looking nice for someone she genuinely admired and who liked her back, whereas I was just showing off for someone else against my will.

I shoved the thought in the back of my mind as Sarah and I talked. She asked me what Michigan was like, what I was studying, what brought me to New York, etc., and I in turn asked her about her family life and what she thought of the newsies. Sarah didn't try to pry into my personal life like everyone else had, and I thought that she was awesome for it. Just before the rally started, Jack, David and Spot they came to fill us in on a few things. I felt uncomfortable when Jack nodded his approval at me, and I was definitely unnerved when Spot just stared at me. What exactly was going through his mind?

I was relieved when they went on the stage to begin the rally.

"Carryin' the banner!" Jack shouted.

In response, the newsies in the crowd stood up and cheered loudly and enthusiastically, holding their signs high. There were so many newsies, that I couldn't help but smile-even though I somewhat knew how the night would turn out.

"So, we've come a long way," Jack said when the newsies quieted down, "but we ain't there yet and maybe it's only gonna get tougher from now on. But that's fine; we'll just get tougher with it."

There was a meager cheering to this. Even Spot started clapping.

"But also," Jack continued, "we gotta get smart and start listening to my pal David, who says 'stop soakin' the scabs'.

"What are we supposed to do to the bums?" Racetrack asked loudly. "Kiss 'em?"

I rolled my eyes when the boys started laughing at Race's comment.

"Any scab I see I soak 'em." Spot said, his face set. "Period."

There were shouts of agreement from the boys, all of which were interrupted by David.

"No, no!" He protested. "That's what they want us to do. If we get violent, it's just playing into their hands."

"Hey, look. They're gonna be playing with my hands, alright." Spot countered him. "'Cuz it ain't what they say, it's what we say. And nobody ain't gonna listen to us unless we make 'em."

I watched as the newsies took different sides of this argument, getting as rowdy as they usually do.

"This is madness!" I exclaimed. "If we keep going on like this, there's no way we can win the strike!"

"You got no brains!" Jack shouted, breaking up the argument. "Why we starting to fight each other? It's just what the big shot's wanna see. That we're street trash! Street rats with no brains. No respect for nothing, including ourselves! So, here's how it's gonna be. If we don't act together, then we're nothing. If we don't stick together, then we're nothing. And if we can't even trust each other, then we're nothing."

"Tell 'em Jack!" Kid Blink shouted from the balcony.

"So, what's it gonna be?" Jack shouted.

There was a murmur among the crowd as the newsies agreed with Jack's point. Jack turned to Spot, who looked a little…unsure.

"So what do you say, Spot?" Jack asked.

I had no idea of what was going on through Spot's mind as he scanned the crowd. I wore a pleading look on my face that I dearly hoped said something along the lines of "Please don't argue, just agree with the womanizer for once in your life." Finally, he spoke.

"I say that what you say…is what I say." Spot told Jack with a smile.

The newsies cheered as Spot and Jack spit-shook. Just then, the curtains opened to reveal Medda wearing a pink, somewhat skimpy dress that showed off her legs. The cheering grew louder, and every single newsie jumped out of his seat as the music started. Jack, David and Spot got off the stage to join Sarah, Les and me at the table.

_Medda & Newsies: High times, hard times  
Sometimes the living is sweet  
And sometimes there's nothing to eat  
But I always land on my feet  
So when there's dry times  
I wait for high times and then  
I put on my best  
And I stick out my chest  
And I'm off to the races again!_

I could hear Racetrack screaming Medda's name, and was tempted to laugh.

"Hello, newsies!" Medda exclaimed, smiling widely. "What's new?"

"Good one." I couldn't help but say as the newsies continued to cheer. At this point, Kid Blink had actually jumped down from the balcony to get closer to the performer.

"Just wait." Spot said to me with a smile as he sat down. "It gets even better."

* * *

_Medda: So your old lady don't love you no more  
So you're afraid there's a wolf at your door  
So you've got street rats that scream in your ear_

_Medda & Newsies: You win some, you lose some my dear!  
Oh…High times, hard times  
Sometimes the living is sweet  
And sometimes there's nothing to eat  
But I always land on my feet  
So when there's dry times  
I wait for high times and then  
I put on my best  
And I stick out my chest  
And I'm off to the races again_

_Medda: I put on my best!_

_Newsies: I put on my best!_

_Medda: And I stick out my chest_

_Newsies: And I sticks out my chest_

_Medda: And I'm off_

_Newsies: And I'm off_

_Medda: And I'm off_

_Newsies: And I'm off_

_Medda: And I'm off_

_All: To the races again!_

To my right, Spot was taking a sip from his drink and smiling as he watched the newsies dancing around Medda, one of which was Jack.

"She's good." I remarked.

This had been the routine for the last hour; watching Medda sing and the newsies dancing with her, each one eager to join in. When Medda took a short break after the first half hour, Spot and I shared stories. I told him about my family, and he told me how he became a newsie and the leader of Brooklyn.

After a while, David leaned around me to say something to Spot, who looked concerned after hearing him. David went forward to get to Jack while Spot urgently took my hand.

"What's happening?" I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"The bulls are here." Spot said quickly, pulling me through the crowd as I heard the telltale whistle of the police. "We gotta get everyone out."

We tried to get through the lobby, but there were so many policemen that escape was impossible. We tried to run, but two cops grabbed us and attempted to drag us out. From the corner of my eye, I saw Racetrack leading Medda and my cousins backstage and trying to defend her. He left to fight one of the bulls, but the guy ruthlessly kicked Racetrack in the stomach and punched his face hard, knocking him out. Medda broke away from her maid to deal with the thug.

"No!" She screamed. "He's just a child! Can't you see that? Racetrack!"

Medda was pulled back as Racetrack was dragged away. I kept watching long enough to see Ginny pull away from another stagehand to get to Racetrack. I wasn't the only one who noticed her; two of the cripes who had attacked us the other day were back, seeking revenge.

"GINNY!" I screamed, breaking free from the cop and taking off into a run to get to her. When I got close enough, I saw her fighting off the guy who was dragging Racetrack's limp form away, and the guy did not withhold from punching her and throwing her to the ground.

I was seeing red. I all but charged at the guy and shoved him to the ground with every ounce of my strength, throwing as many punches as I could at his ugly face. When I was finished, I noticed that Ginny was just barely conscious as the Delanceys got closer, itching to get her.

"Oh no, you don't!" I screamed at them, charging at Morris-the closest one to us-and elbowing him hard in the ribs before turning onto Oscar and throwing kicks at him. I was so busy trying to protect Ginny from the bulls that I did not notice that one guy had actually led a horse into the theater. I turned around just in time to see the horse's hoof hit me hard in the face. It looked like a light kick at first, but it hurt beyond crud. I fell to the ground and blacked out, but not before seeing a few of the bulls surrounding me.

* * *

Only a few facts were clear when I slowly regained consciousness. One: wherever I was, it was rather cold and dark. Two: this cot was made out of rocks and fleas. Three: this was the kind of room that was just not meant to hold so many people at once. And lastly: my head hurt beyond what I thought was humanely possible.

I winced when I opened my eyes and rubbed the spot on my head where the horse had kicked me. "Terrific." I mumbled somewhat incoherently. "I've had two large cuts on my lip and arm, got a broken leg, and pneumonia. But this one hurt."

"Momentai." A familiar voice said back to me.

I jumped, grimacing as I did. As my sight became a bit clearer, I noticed that at least a dozen of the Manhattan newsies were here in the cell with me: Mush, Racetrack, Kid Blink, Skittery, Boots, Snipeshooter, Snitch, Pie Eater, Swifty, Specs, and Bumlets. I wasn't sure of who said Momentai to me, but I was pretty sure that it was Kid Blink. The boys looked terrible. A handful of them had black eyes, almost all of them looked sleep deprived, and Spec's glasses were cracked. I felt guilty for sleeping on the cot when at least one or two of them had been unconscious, so I attempted to get out of the cot so that someone else could claim it.

"You guys doing okay?" I groaned as I struggled to sit up.

"I wouldn't move if I were you." Specs said, putting a firm hand on my shoulder to push me back to the bed. "That was a bad concussion ya got from that horse."

"Trust me; movin's gonna hurt like the dickens if yer tryin' too hard." Racetrack remarked.

Obviously, he had fought a fight that had resulted like that. I rolled my eyes and winced when it hurt.

"Where are we at, anyway?" I asked, lying back on the bed of rocks.

"The Refuge, obviously." Boots groaned, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"The Refuge?" I repeated. "That explains the fleas and the bed of rocks."

"I heard that." One of the prison guards remarked outside of our cell.

It was then that I remembered what had happened the night before, recalling the exact circumstances that had led to the position I was in now, and I was not in a good mood. I couldn't help it; I sat right back up and swore at him in every language I knew. I didn't care that it hurt; I was mad at the bulls for what had happened at the rally.

"So what happens now?" I asked, wincing as I lay back on the cot.

"We're waitin' for the judge to give us a fine fer the rally." Bumlets said. "All of the newsies were soaked at that rally, includin' Jack."

I closed my eyes, rubbing my forehead. I knew that Jack had been arrested, but it still didn't feel good to know that it was true.

"What about Denton?" I asked. "David? Les? Sarah? What about my cousins?"

"Denton got out." Kid Blink said. "So did Davey, Les an' Sarah."

"And my cousins? Are they all right?"

There was a long moment of silence. Suddenly afraid, I opened my eyes and slowly turned my head to face the boys. Some of them looked guilty, and all of them looked unsure.

"Guys?" I asked uncertainly. "Ginny and Charlie…where are they?"

No one answered for the longest time. Finally, it was Mush who spoke.

"We don't know." He said. "We've been watchin' the door to see who else was arrested. We've seen Snoddy, Spot, and Jack at one point…but we haven't seen Ginger or Chuck since the rally."

We were interrupted when one of the bulls opened the cell door. "Time for the trial." He said to us.

* * *

"All rise. All rise." The bailiff said. "Court is now in session. Judge E.A. Monahan presiding."

Obviously the court had no sympathy for people with splitting headaches or other injuries. I wasn't quite able to stand because I was so disoriented, so Mush and Spot-who had joined us-did their best to support me. The sounds of the gavel still hurt, though. I didn't feel any better when Spot told me that he hadn't seen either of my cousins.

"Are any of you represented by council?" The judge asked.

No one seemed to know what he was talking about. "Good, that will move things along considerably."

"Hey, yer honor, I object!" Spot piped from my left.

"On what grounds?" Judge Monahan asked, looking at Spot hard.

There was a slight pause. "On the grounds of Brooklyn, yer honor." He said finally. The newsies started to crack up. Monahan banged on his desk to silence the laughter, causing the ache in my head to get worse.

"I fine each of you five dollars," The judge said, "or two weeks confinement in the House of Refuge."

This was not good news. I wasn't sure of how much money I had left, but I knew that it wouldn't be enough to cover me and my cousins together. If anything happened to them…

"Whoa. We ain't got five bucks. We don't even got five cents!" Racetrack protested before adding in another joke. "Hey, yer honor, how 'bout I roll you for it. Double or nothing?"

This was not going very well. Thankfully, Denton had made it through the crowd and into the courtroom, followed by David. "Your honor, I'll pay the fines." He said. "All of them."

"Hey, you fellas alright?" David asked. "Where's Jack?"

"Look, we've got to meet at the restaurant." Denton said to us urgently. "Everybody. We have to talk."

"David!" I exclaimed, looking at him desperately. "Ginny and Charlie, where are they? Where are my cousins, David?"

"Don't worry, they're alright." David said. "Denton got them out before any more damage could be done. Ginny got a black eye and she has a handful of bruises on her, but my mother checked on her and said that she'll be fine. Charlie isn't hurt, and they're both waiting for you at the lodging house."

I breathed out a sigh of relief that I hadn't realized that I was holding in. At least no permanent damage had been done.

"Hey fellas!"

I turned around to see that Jack had been led in, his hands cuffed behind him and one of his eyes now a delicate shade of purple and black. Close to him, Denton was paying the fines.

"Hey, Denton. I guess we made all the papes this time." Jack remarked. "So, how's my picture look?"

"None of the papers covered the rally." Denton answered gravely. "Not even the Sun."

"Case of Jack Kelly." The bailiff announced. "Inciting a riot. Assault. Resisting arrest."

"Judge Monahan, I'll speak for this young man."

I winced when I heard the voice of Warden Snyder come from behind my group of newsies. Mush and Spot were trying to move me away from the courtroom, but I didn't dare move as the judge gave Snyder permission to continue.

"This boy's real name is Francis Sullivan." Snyder said. "His mother's deceased. His father's a convict in the state penitentiary. He's an escapee from the House of Refuge where his original sentence for three months was extended to six months for disruptive behavior."

When Jack interrupted to make a remark about Snyder's greed for money, I paused to think. I did remember that Jack had lied about his name, but I didn't know that his mother was dead or that his father was in jail. That explained part of what Medda had told me what seemed like an eternity ago…

"Therefore, I ask that he be returned to the House of Refuge." Snyder concluded, and I remembered who it was that I was mad at.

"What?" Jack didn't sound happy either. "For my own good, right? Move it along? For my own good and for what he kicks back to you!"

"I ask that the court order his incarceration until the age of twenty-one, in the hope that we may yet guide him to a useful and productive life." Snyder said, with a look in his eerily white eyes that appeared to be concern but what was actually an evil look that clearly said 'I've got you back, and you're not getting away this time.' This time, no opinion of mine could be held back.

"Oh, and what's your definition of 'useful and productive', Snyder?" I spat, struggling against Mush's hold on me. "Another slave in the sweatshops? Or another kid who just puts more money in your pocket? You don't care about him, or about any of the boys in the refuge, or about any child who is in honest need of your help! You're a sadist!"

"Silence, girl-"

"You scab bastard!" I snarled, ignoring the judge's interruption. "You're the real criminal, Snyder, and no one in their right minds would spare you a nickel, even if their lives depended on it!"

"That's enough, Clover." Spot interrupted me.

"Your honor?" Snyder said, acting as though nothing had happened.

"So ordered." The pathetic excuse for a judge ordered. I ignored the pain in my head and Les's protest as the reality set in. As long as Jack was in the refuge, he was more of a prisoner than he deserved to be, and the newsies wouldn't stand a chance against Pulitzer. We were doomed.

I turned to face the newsies, who were staring at me with looks of shock and-in some cases-admiration. I smiled grimly. "What? Never heard a girl swear before?"

* * *

**AN: …so yeah, there's the chapter. Sorry that there wasn't more to the fight scene; I'm not too great with those, and I wanted to get the gist of what occurred. Anyways, reviews are nice, and the story shall continue in due time.**


	12. Chapter 12: Beat When We Were Born

**Disclaimer: I am not the genius who owns Newsies.**

Chapter 12: Beat when we were born

Time: End of June, 1899

When we left the courtroom, the sunlight stung my eyes and I remembered how much my head hurt. One of the other newsies explained what had happened to me at the rally, and so Spot led me back to the lodging house while everyone else went to Tibby's.

"You look as though you didn't get a lot of sleep." I remarked.

"In case you didn't notice, the floors weren't too great and the beds had no comfort in them." Spot countered. "Besides, yer no better off than I am."

"Touché." I replied.

There was a pause as we waited to cross the street.

"You know, I never met a girl who could fight tooth an' nail like that." Spot commented. "Where'd you learn how to fight?"

"I took martial arts lessons back in Michigan." I said, nearly tripping over my feet. "I couldn't continue with it after a few months, but I did get the gist of the basics."

Spot looked impressed. "Ya know, for a school kid who went to college, yer well on yer way to becomin' a great newsie." He said. "Ran away from home, soaked a handful of the bulls, usin' language no lady would ever use…all ya need to do now is learn how to sell the papes."

"Gee, your vote of confidence is overwhelming." I said sarcastically.

"I'm serious." Spot said. "The boys were talkin' about how you took on the bulls, tryin' to defend Ginger when she got hurt. Only a true newsie would put hisself in danger like that for someone else."

I shrugged. "Ginny is my cousin, and it's my fault that she and Charlie aren't home with their parents. They begged me to take them with me, so I did. If I had known that they'd be in danger, I would've left them there…great, I'm babbling."

"Momentai." Spot said. I wasn't sure of whether to get annoyed by this or not. "I need to get to know every newsie, and ya didn't answer most of my questions last time I asked 'em."

"What about last night?" I asked curiously. "I told you about my family, didn't I?"

"Ya did," Spot acknowledged. "Ya never told me why yer here in New York and not in Michigan."

I sighed, giving up. "Well…I don't know why I'm here, to be honest. I always wanted an adventure like no other, though, ever since I was a kid. But I felt like I wasn't getting it, mostly because my family wanted me to become the typical scab; social, rich, successful, always dressing like a lady, prim and proper…well, you get the idea. The pressure got worse when my brother got engaged, and his future in-laws seemed to intensify my parents' expectations of me. So when the opportunity came to come here, I took it."

"If ya always wanted to be away from home, why didn't you leave earlier? Why now?"

"There were a lot of reasons for why I didn't leave earlier…" I trailed off as I realized that this wasn't one hundred percent true. "Well…only three, I guess. Ginny and Charlie were two of them. They look up to me, and they expect me to be exactly as I am, nothing more and nothing less."

"What was the third reason?" Spot asked.

I paused, unsure of what to say to him. On one hand, I had no reason to lead him on for Jack's sake since Spot had already given his consent and joined the strike. On the other hand…the only people who knew about Joey were Medda and Ginny. This was just not something that I was used to talking to other guys about.

"Well…there was a friend of mine who went to school with me for years." I answered carefully. "I wasn't sure if he was trying hard to be my friend because of who I was or out of pity. And I wanted to know if he was honestly worth staying in Grand Rapids for before I made the decision."

Spot was silent as he took it all in. I wasn't sure of what to make of the silence, and I had no clue of what he was thinking. I wasn't sure if I wanted to, either; I remembered what David and Jack had told me about Spot when they were trying to convince me to go along with the idea, and I regretted the blunt honesty.

"So I take it that he wasn't worth stickin' around for?" He said finally as we were nearing the lodging house.

I wasn't going to lie. My chest suddenly seemed to hurt more than my head did when I heard the words come out of Spot's mouth. Even though I hadn't really run away from home, every day it was starting to feel more and more as though I did. And why was my head starting to hurt even more?

"...ulgh, my head really hurts..." I said finally, not sure if I could keep walking long enough to get inside. Turns out, I didn't.

* * *

My head was still hurting a little when I woke up, but the pain wasn't as intense as it had been before. I think it helped that the bed I was lying on this time wasn't made out of rocks.

"Man, this is a feeling for a sore back." I mumbled, slightly opening my eyes. I took the words back, though, when Charlie jumped on me and started screaming in joy.

"LEAH! YOU'RE OKAY!"

"Take it easy there, kid." Another voice-Snitch, I think-said, pulling the weight off of me. "Clover ain't doin' too good, she got sick on the way back and her head still smarts from when that horse kicked her."

I risked opening my eyes again to see Charlie smiling at me, relieved that I was-for the most part-okay. I wasn't sure of how long I had been out for this time, since it was now dark outside. All of the newsies-other than Mush, Kid Blink, Boots, Racetrack, Les and David-were in the room, either sleeping or sitting on their bunks. Not far from where Charlie and I were, Spot and Ginny were in what appeared to be a whispered argument. Some of the other newsies were looking at me, while others looked…let down. What had happened?

"This sight is a place for sore eyes." I smiled lightly, sitting up. I still had a slight headache, but my head felt considerably better by now. "How long was I asleep for?"

"Rest of the day." Snitch answered, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Good thing, too; yer lookin' better."

"I'm feeling better than I did this morning." I admitted, sitting up. "By the way, who's bunk am I sleeping in?"

"Racetrack's." Snitch said as Spot and Ginny joined us. "Don't feel guilty for it; he owed us money an' we couldn' take ya an extra floor up, so he gave up his bed to pay us back."

I shook my head. "Where is Racetrack, anyway? Come to think of it, where are Mush, Boots, Kid Blink, David and Les at?"

"They're bailin' Jack outta the refuge." Spot answered, leaning against the bunk. "Ya sure you're doin' alright?"

"Momentai, you guys. My head still hurts a little, but it's more like a headache than a head injury. I'm surprised too, but you don't really see me complaining that much, do you?"

"Leah?" Ginny said. It didn't escape my attention that she was back in her newsie clothes rather than the dress that Medda had given her. My smile was wiped clean off my face when I remembered the rally. I sat up and leaned against Racetrack's pillow, crossing my arms. The boys took the hint and left the bunk, minding their own business.

"I'm disappointed in you, Ginny." I said when I was sure that we had enough privacy-well, as much as we could get. "I told you to stay out of trouble, not to look for it."

"I was just trying to help." She mumbled, looking down at her feet.

"I understand that." I admitted. "But Racetrack wasn't the only one who was injured at that rally. Look at the other boys. When I woke up at the refuge, every single one of them were covered in bruises, black eyes, and I'm sure as heck that none of them got any sleep that night. I told you that the bulls wouldn't exercise restraint at the rally."

Ginny sniffed before sitting on the edge of the bed. "But we're newsies. We have to look after each other, because we're all we have left."

"That was why I didn't want either of you to go to the rally." I said. "I wasn't sure if lives would be lost, or if anyone would be stuck in the refuge under Snyder's lock and key for good. I thought I might lose you and Charlie if you went to the rally."

"I'm sorry, Leah." Ginny said. "I knew it was dangerous, but…I was just trying to be a good newsie."

"You are a good newsie, Gin." I smiled at her. "You're sure as heck better at selling papes than I am. But being a newsie doesn't mean that you take all of the responsibility and dump it all on yourself. It's like Jack said: if we don't work together, trust each other, or act together, than we're nothing. We are human, you know."

"Well, if I didn't think so before, I sure do now." She said.

I put my hand on her shoulder to help her know that I wasn't mad at her anymore. "Let's just say that, from now on, we rely on the strength of the newsies put together."

Ginny smiled at me, and she all but dived into my arms and hugged me tight.

"Let 'er breathe, Ginger." One of the boys chuckled after a while. "Let 'er breathe."

I shook my head, but smiled all the same. "Where's Denton at, anyway?" I finally asked. "I gotta thank him for getting my cousins out of the theater and bailing us out of jail."

Every face around me fell. Even Ginny and Charlie looked unhappy.

"Denton was reassigned." One of the boys finally said. "He's gonna write for the war, and none of the papes will talk 'bout any strikes no more."

I was shocked, to say the least. It just didn't make any sense to me.

"Oh man." I groaned, slumping back into the back of the bed-wincing, because I had forgotten how uncomfortable that action was. "Well, what are we going to do now? If none of the papers are going to print any news about the strike, then how are we supposed to fight Pulitzer?"

"That's why we're bustin' Jack outta jail." Bumlets remarked. "Maybe he'll have some idea of what to do next."

"By the way," Ginny started, "it wasn't Denton who got Charlie and me out safely. It was Charlie."

I started before doing a double take. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, after you got arrested, my eye was hurting and I couldn't see well with one eye." Ginny explained. "Charlie found me and pulled me out of the theater."

"He was tough, too." One of the boys added. "Never thought the kid had it in 'im. You shoulda seen 'im head buttin' the Crib and the bulls if someone ever got in 'is way."

"He didn't stop running when we got out." Ginny continued. "Charlie kept leading me away until we found Sarah and Les. Sarah got us back to her apartment and her mother fixed my eye so that I could see through it without trying to pry it open."

I was shocked. Little Charlie, who was scared of Snyder, Spot Conlon, tornadoes, and the Delancey brothers, head butting the bulls? Unsure, I slowly moved my feet over the edge of the bed and struggled to stand, refusing help from the newsies. When I was standing, I carefully looked over my two cousins. On one hand, there was Ginny. Her face was still covered in bruises from at least twenty-four hours ago, and her eye was still purple and blue from where the thug had punched her. On the other hand, there was Charlie. He had a small scratch here and there, but other than that he looked mostly unharmed. It seemed as though both of them finally knew the truth about courage.

We were interrupted when the door opened again. We turned to see David coming in, leading the rest of the newsies in. All of them looked at a loss for words, although they brightened a little to see me awake.

"What's going on?" I asked. "Where's Jack?"

"He wouldn't come with us." David said.

* * *

I knew that I shouldn't have, but when David told me that Jack was still in the refuge I just couldn't resist. When the boys were talking, I had grabbed the rope from Jack's empty bunk and gone down to the refuge myself, using the excuse that I needed to go out on the roof to get some air. It helped that I had my newsie clothes back, which Sarah had brought to the lodging house while I was unconscious, because it meant that I mostly looked like a homeless teenage boy in the shadows.

I managed to get onto the roof of the refuge undetected, and I got to work. I tied one end of the rope around my waist and another around the doorknob of the stair doors leading down to the ground. As carefully as I could, I lowered myself down until I could see Jack in his cell.

I knew that Snyder was a rat in every sense of the word, but I didn't realize how much until I saw the room. The only source of light in the room was a lantern on the bedside table-if you could even call it a bed, since it had no mattress.

"_Santa Fe_," I sang, "_My old friend, I can't spend my whole life hidin'. You're the only light that's guidin' me today…_"

Jack turned to face me, not really looking surprised to see me. "You shouldn't be here, Clover." He said. "What if Snyder sees you here? I don't care if you are lucky or not, he don't show mercy to nobody who's an orphan."

"Jack, I'm nineteen years old." I said. "They can't touch me as long as I'm an adult by the law. Besides, I wanted to know why you didn't leave with David when you had the chance."

Jack didn't appear to hear me. "You said you wanted to leave the college, but never made the choice until now. Why?"

I paused. I should've known that Spot wasn't the only one who wanted to know. "It's a long story."

"How long does the rope hold?" Jack asked. "I got time."

We were interrupted when Crutchy opened the slot of the door. He appeared to not see me. "Psst! Jack! Look!" He exclaimed, holding a potato. "I snitched it off Snyder's plate while I was serving him. It's the biggest one. Oh, Mr. Snyder was eating good tonight. You know the stuff that we don't ever get? He got potatoes, olives, liver, bacon, sauerkraut. And guess what I done to his sauerkraut, huh?"

"So, what'd it get ya?" Jack asked, taking the potato before sitting back on the pathetic excuse for a bed.

"Oh, anudder three months, probably," Crutchy said, still looking as optimistic as ever. "But you can't let 'em get you, right Jack? That's what you always said."

Jack sighed. "We was beat when we was born."

Crutchy frowned before he closed the slot of the door.

"I wouldn't give up hope, Cowboy." I said. "No one said this would be easy. You said so yourself at the rally."

"You're the lucky charm, Clover. You should be leadin' the strike."

"Jack-"

"You should go before Snyder sees you here." Jack interrupted. "You got lucky when Crutchy was the one who opened that slot, and not Snyder."

I frowned, but nevertheless I climbed back up the rope. "Momentai, Jack." I whispered. "Momentai."

I could hear Jack singing the last verse of 'Santa Fe' as I scaled the building.

"_Will you keep a candle burnin'? Will you help me find my way? You're my chance to break free, and who knows when my next one will be? Santa Fe…wait for me…_"

* * *

"Stop the World!"

"No more papes!"

"Stop the World!"

"No more papes!"

That was pretty much how the next morning started. I had to convince the boys to let me go with them to the Distribution Center to continue the strike, but even so it didn't seem to do much. The bulls were surrounding the gates, preventing us from getting inside. At one point, a newspaper carriage actually broke us up by just plowing through as though we weren't there. We did get out of the way in time, but the break up caused a fight among the newsies.

Ginny shook her head. "At this rate, we may as well give in and go to the sweatshops to beg for money and work."

Thankfully, Race and Spot were breaking up the fights. I made my way over to the front to try to talk to David…but something was off when I looked through the open gates. Apparently, Spot thought so too when he called Race next to him. "Tell me I'm just seeing things," He said disbelievingly. "Just tell me I'm seeing things."

Racetrack looked over to where Spot was looking. "No, you ain't seeing things. That's Jack. What's he doing?"

"He's dressed like a scabber!"

Unfortunately, that was the case. Jack Kelly was being led to the front of the group of scabs, wearing a suit that did not look too great on him. His bandanna and cowboy hat were gone, and I wouldn't have been surprised if that boy had been anyone else other than Jack Kelly.

"Jack?" Mush asked, walking forward without appearing to be aware of the bulls pushing him back. "Jack, look at me, will ya? Come on, it's me, Mush. Look at me. What are you doin', Jack?"

Kid Blink had the same results. "This ain't happening. This can't be happening. What are you doin' Jack?" Unlike Mush, Kid Blink was getting mad.

So was Boots. "Hey, what is this? Where'd you get them clothes?"

"Mr. Pulitzer picked them out himself." Weasel replied snootily, wiping some dirt off of Jack's new gray jacket. "A special gift to a special new employee."

"He sold us out!" Spot exclaimed.

"Look at 'im, in 'is liddle suit!" Racetrack growled. "Ya bum! I'll soak ya! Ya fake!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Spot interrupted Race. "Let me get my hands dirty." I jumped out of the way when Spot hurtled at Jack, ignoring the fact that the bulls were blocking his way. "Come here ya dirty rotten scabber!"

A group of newsies pulled Spot away as he continued swearing and shouting threats at Jack. David and I stared at Jack.

Weasel took notice of this. "Aww. You wanna talk to him? Come on, come on. Sure. Got right ahead."

Surprisingly enough, the bulls actually let us through so that we could talk to Jack. Weasel even backed away from Jack when we got closer to him.

"So, this is why you didn't escape last night." David replied, flipping his jacket flap open for a second and getting angrier by the second. "You're a liar! You lied about everything. You lied about your father being out west, 'cause he's not out west! You didn't even tell me your real name!"

"So?" Jack seemed unaffected by David's words. "What you wanna do about it Dave?"

I shook my head in disbelief. "I don't understand you."

"Oh, so let me spell it out for ya. You see, I ain't got nobody tucking me in at night, like you. It's just me. I gotta look out for myself."

"You had the newsies, Jack!" David pointed out.

"Oh, what'd being a newsies ever give me but a dime a day and a few black eyes?" Jack asked. I couldn't believe my ears; there was just no way that this was Jack Kelly. He continued. "I can't afford to be a kid no more. For the first time in my life, I got money in my pockets. Real money. Money, you understand? I got more on the way and as soon as I collect, I'm gone, I'm away. Alright?"

"Well, that's good." David said angrily. "That's good because we don't need you! We don't need you! All those words you said, those were mine."

"Yeah, but you never had the guts to put them across yourself, didja?"

I was seeing red, and I could not hold my emotions in anymore. "This isn't about the money; Pulitzer gave you a chance to go to Santa Fe as soon as the strike was over on _his_ terms, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did, so what's it to you?"

"What about the newsies? What about Sarah?" Sullivan looked at me, but I kept talking. "I've seen the way you look at her. She genuinely admires you too, you know. How do you think she's going to react when she finds out that the man she admired died overnight? And frankly, I'm mad that you turned into such a bad influence for my cousins. Is this all just a game to you, Sullivan?"

"I'm still Jack, Clover."

I shook my head. "Jack Kelly died overnight, Sullivan. And it's Leah Brinks to you now; you may have given me the nickname, but you lost the right to call me that by joining the scabs."

"You don't know nothing." Sullivan said, staring me down.

I couldn't take it anymore. "You wanna know why I didn't leave before?" I said finally, ready to come clean. "I was in the same position as you're in! I have a man back home who I look at the way you look at Sarah! And let me tell you, it's not easy to leave a man who at least genuinely cares about you!"

The newsies behind me were shocked, but I kept my attention on Sullivan. He was slightly surprised, but he didn't even look at me when he spoke. "So I suppose he loves you back? And why are you here, if you love the guy so much?"

"To both of those questions, I don't know." I said. "That's why I was still indecisive about leaving home; it would be a lot easier to do so if I knew for a fact that he didn't love me in that way. And believe me, if I could, I'd go back home right now so that I could at least see him just one more time. I miss him more than anybody else, and I regret leaving home without at least saying good-bye to him. And trust me, you're gonna miss Sarah and the rest of your family once you're in Santa Fe alone. That's all I've got to say."

"What family?" Sullivan snapped.

"Why don't you ask the newsies you once called your brothers?" I snarled as I turned around and rejoined the newsies, all of whom were looking at me differently. David started to join me, but he turned around to face the traitor once more.

"What'sa matta?" Sullivan sneered. "Got a problem?"

"David rushed towards him, but Weasel and a few policemen pulled him away.

"Maybe you'd like a new suit of your own, huh?" Weasel shouted at David.

"Never!" David spat. The police shoved him back towards the newsies, all of whom started screaming bloody murder at Sullivan as he was escorted away. Ginny and Charlie were among the angry newsies. By the time Sullivan and his escorts were gone, only Les believed in him.

"He's foolin' 'em, so he can spy on 'em or something. Yeah, yeah, that's it. He's foolin' 'em!"

David hugged his brother to him, still looking after the traitor. We all reassured Les that he was right, that Jack was only fooling them. We just couldn't break it to the kid that Jack Kelly was gone.

"You doin' okay, Clover?" Spot asked.

I didn't answer directly. I looked after the silhouette of Sullivan, the reality of the guilt hitting me like the horse had. "You know, all that money he's got in his pockets makes freedom look like hell right now."

* * *

Instead of going to bed that night, I spent another hour looking up at the stars. As I sat out there on the roof, I thought about the people I had left behind. My mother, Peter, Jana, the rest of the family, my friends…and Joey. For the majority of the night, I thought of the closest thing I had to what Ginny had referred to as my 'childhood friend'. I wondered how he was doing, and I reflected on every moment I had spent with him. I remembered classes with him, band concerts, the meals we had in the dining hall together, dancing in the rain once, and both times he had called me 'beautiful', my heart aching as I remembered the hurt look in his eyes the first time he used it. I wondered if we would ever get back home, or if I ever would see him again.

"Who am I to you, Joey? Would it matter to you if I had stayed or if I had left?"

**AN: You would not BELIEVE what I went through to get this chapter done. I actually stayed up until daylight savings time started working through the first draft. That's right. Past three in the morning. I went to bed and realized exactly how terrible it was; I actually left Jack's betrayal out and had a new scene in the chapter that was just plain wrong and wouldn't really work out in any way whatsoever. Hopefully, this go-round was way better than the one before it. Reviews anyone?**


	13. Chapter 13: One Last Chance

**AN: This is kind of random I know, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to JediKnightoftheRougeSquadron for the epic comment he/she made on the last chapter. I read it, and it just made my day. Thanks, Jedi!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies. I do own Leah, Ginny, Charlie, and the nun who appears in the chapter  
**

Chapter 13: One last chance

TIME: Early July, 1899

Mr. Kloppman didn't wake us up in the morning nowadays because of the strike. I wasn't really sure if any of us would've gotten up on this morning if he had come in, anyway; the betrayal was still fresh in our minds.

Right now, only a few things were certain for the newsies. First: the strike would likely end in failure. Second: the sweatshops were looking pretty good right now. Third: David, Spot, and I (according to Jack, not me) were the only ones left who were eligible to lead the strike, and Spot had gone back to Brooklyn after we encountered Francis Sullivan. Fourth: it was now impossible to soak any scabs, even if we wanted to. David's idea wasn't working out either, because there just weren't enough newsies standing together who could threaten Pulitzer now.

I sighed, getting out of bed and leaving the lodging house alone. I didn't bother to wake Ginny or Charlie, because it took a while for me to get both of them to sleep the night before. As I walked through the streets of Manhattan, I wondered if anything could work, now. Maybe David had some ideas up his sleeve. Maybe there was something in Denton's article that could help us. Maybe…

"Excuse me, miss?" I looked up to see a rather young nun looking at me, holding a bowl of soup and a roll of bread in her hands. "I recognized you as one of the newsies on strike. I figured that you were hungry and could use a small breakfast if you're going to stand up to Pulitzer."

I shook my head lightly. "Thank you ma'am, but to be honest I'm not sure if the strike is still going. Our leader died overnight, no plan was made about replacing him, and the newsies are practically scattered now."

The nun looked crestfallen. "I am sorry to hear that. Do any of you have any other jobs?"

I shook my head. "Not unless you're allowing a group of young rowdy boys to become nuns."

She smiled lightly at the joke. "I don't know about that, but there is a church here in town for monks if the boys need a place to live."

"I'm not sure if they're too keen on giving up their lifestyle at the moment."

The nun and I were silent for a moment.

"Miss," she spoke again, "have you heard of a newsie who goes by the name Ten Pin?"

Ten Pin? That name sounded familiar. Where had I...?

"I think so." I said slowly, going through a list of the newsies that I knew. Jack, Racetrack, Skittery, Mush, Kid Blink, Crutchy...Crutchy? Oh, the refuge! "Yeah, I think I remember that name, now. Um...one of the other newsies mentioned a kid in the refuge named Ten Pin." I lied smoothly, not quite willing to get too personal with the nun. "Why?"

"He's my little nephew." The nun answered. "His mother, my sister, died when he was born, and his father had died a long time ago. I couldn't afford to take care of him until just recently, but by the time I found out where he was, Mr. Snyder had already put him in the refuge and I couldn't pay his fine."

"I'm so sorry." I mumbled, feeling uncomfortable.

"Don't give up on the strike." She said, putting the soup and bread in my hands before starting to walk away. "Trust in God; only he is big enough to fight the injustice of our system and come out victorious. He may help you get the strike back on track."

I would've gone after her, but the scent of the soup was getting to me and my stomach was growling. _I guess it's time to eat,_ I thought.

I found an empty alley to eat my breakfast and did a lot of thinking as I sipped the soup and nibbled on the roll. _God is big enough to fight the injustice of our system and come out victorious...but if that's the case, then how come it's not like that here in the past, or back in the present?_

_Maybe it is, and God's just waiting for the right time._

_But how am I supposed to know when the right time is?_

_You're not. Nobody is. Wait for the Lord and he will deliver you._

_But then what do we do in the meantime? Do we sit still and do nothing while people like Pulitzer and Snyder steal the shirts off our backs?_

_You could, or you could be one of those people who stand up to those in the wrong and aid those in need._

"Stop it!" A familiar female voice shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Leave him alone!"

My eyes opened and I turned to where I had heard the screaming. Across the street from me, Les was fighting Oscar unsuccessfully. Behind them, Morris had his arms locked around Sarah and was trying to drag her into the alley.

"Oh no." I muttered. Dropping the rest of my roll, I rushed across the street to help just as Les was shoved into a pile of baskets. Before I could help Les up, Oscar had grabbed me by my hair.

"Look what we got here, Morris." He sneered. "Jacky-boy's lucky four-leaf clover. Let's see exactly how lucky you are…"

Sarah managed to break free from Morris's hold. "You stupid ape." She growled before punching him in the face. It didn't seem to hurt though, and it only resulted in Morris being even fiercer with her.

I looked up to see that David had come to investigate, and was checking on Les.

"Run Davey!" Sarah shouted.

The Delanceys noticed David then, and Oscar threw me to the ground.

"Yeah, run Davey." He taunted, staring at David. "We got the best part of your family right here."

David tackled Oscar to the ground. Morris threw Sarah next to me to help.

"Stop it!" She screamed. Oscar kept punching David in the stomach, and while this was happening Morris pulled a pair of brass knuckles out of his pocket and put them on.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Sarah screamed.

I got up and rushed at Morris with all my might, shoving him to the ground. I then made to get to Oscar, intending to kick him right where it hurt, but Morris was already two steps ahead of me. He grabbed the back of my shirt and held me against the wall, punching me in the stomach with his knuckles and sending me to the ground. He also stepped hard on my hand, and I will not lie; this combination of soaking was painful.

Sarah screamed again, but neither of the Delanceys appeared to hear her. Oscar held David, who looked barely conscious by now, while Morris got ready to use the knuckles. I could already feel myself wincing, so I closed my eyes to avoid having to see it. But…since when was the puncher grunting?

I opened my eyes again to see that Sullivan was in the alley, punching Morris like there was no tomorrow before throwing him in a box. David elbowed Oscar in the stomach, breaking free from him before collapsing onto the ground. I got up, wincing to help David as Sullivan grabbed Oscar.

"Remember Crutchy?" Jack asked before head butting him. When Oscar fell near Morris, Jack turned to Sarah and helped her up.

"You alright?" He asked, briefly hugging her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She murmured.

Turning away from them, I helped David onto his feet, helping him stand. Oscar and Morris stood back up, looking as though they were just aching to get revenge.

"You'd better run, Cowboy." Morris sneered. "We're gonna tell uncle Weas. You'll be back in the Refuge before suppertime!"

"Run, you lousy cowards, run!" I screamed at the Delancey brothers as they ran off. Les chased after them briefly, and Jack would've joined him if Sarah hadn't stopped him from taking off.

"Go on!" Les shouted after them. "Get outta here! Don't come back! You hear me?"

"What?" David said to Jack. "You couldn't stay away?"

"Well, I guess I can't be something I ain't." Jack said.

"A scab?" I asked.

"No, smart."

* * *

"Thank you again for your hospitality, Mrs. Jacobs." I said to the woman bandaging my hand.

After the fiasco with the Delanceys, Sarah insisted that we head back to the Jacobs' apartment, mainly due to the fact that David nearly threw up and that my hand looked as though it had seen better days. While David recovered in one room, Mrs. Jacobs had made a splint and was now wrapping my hand with it.

"Anything to help a friend of David's." Mrs. Jacob said to me. "The bones are broken, but due to the strike we don't have enough money to send you to a doctor."

"That's alright." I said earnestly. "If the strike does end in a good way, I can take the hand to a doctor if it doesn't heal right away."

Not far away from where I sat, Jack was reading the article that Denton had written about the rally. Apparently Sarah found it among Les's possessions and kept it, just in case. After Mrs. Jacobs was finished with my hand, Jack stood, a new spirit seeming to rise in him.

"Come on, fellas." He said. "We gotta go see Denton before he leaves."

So the article _would_ help. Huh. Who knew?

As Jack, Sarah, David, Les and I walked to Denton's place, I couldn't help but wear a small smile on my face. Jack was back in the game, and he was even wearing his bandanna again. When we got to the apartment, Jack knocked a few times on the door, speaking when Denton answered it.

"Did you mean what you wrote here?" Jack asked, holding up Denton's folded article. "'Bout all these sweat shop kids listening to me?"

"I don't write anything I don't mean." Denton said with a grin. "Come on in. I'm just packing a few things."

We did go in, and David closed the door. Denton's place was a bit messy due to the packing, but other than that it seemed becoming for him. There were photos here and there, probably of the events that he had written about.

"So, yes, I meant it." Denton continued. "The city thrives on child labor. A lot of people make money that way. They're terrified that the newsies strike will spread."

"Well, there's really not much chance of that as long as they got the power." Jack lamented.

"Sometimes," Denton said, "all it takes is a voice, one voice that becomes a hundred, and then a thousand…unless it's silenced."

"Why can't we spread the strike?" Jack asked. "Have another big rally and get the word out to all the sweat shop kids? Why not?"

"How can we get the word out?" I asked. "None of the newspapers will print anymore news about the strikes."

"What are we going to do?" David agreed with me. "Print an ad in an Illinois newspaper, like Ginny's been suggesting?"

"No, we'll do better than that. We'll make our own paper." Jack suggested. "We tell 'em they gotta join us. Isn't that a good idea?"

"Yeah, it is." I admitted. "But what do we know about printing a newspaper?"

"Nothing, but our man Denton…"

I couldn't help but grin. Obviously, he and David had something up their sleeves to convince Denton to help us out.

"Yeah," David said, echoing my smile, "but I think our man Denton has something more important to do. He's going to be an ace war correspondent, right Denton?"

This was just too good. Denton was more than convinced, all right. "Alright. Where do we start?"

We got serious as we sat down at the table. "Alright, we gotta move fast." Jack started. "Now, we'll need the newsies to circulate."

"There's something else that we need." Denton pointed out. "We need a printing press."

Jack grinned. "Just so happens I know a guy with a printing press."

* * *

It turns out that the 'guy' Jack mentioned was old man Pulitzer himself. Later that night, we snuck into the basement of the Distribution Center, with Jack leading the way and holding a lantern.

"You've been living here?" Sarah asked unbelievingly.

Jack shushed her, taking her hand. "They're right above us. Weasel catches us here, we're all in the slammer." He placed the lantern down on a nearby table and pulled a dirty sheet off of an old machine.

"Alright!" Denton whispered with glee as he examined the machine. "A Platen press. Looks like old man Pulitzer never threw anything away."

"Is it going to work?" David asked.

"I hope so." I said. "We have a deadline to meet."

To our relief, the machine did work. Denton showed us how to print a paper, and we eagerly got started.

_Denton: This is the story you wanted to write, well tonight is the night that you can_

_Leah: Just get this done and by dawn's early light you can finish the fight you began_

_David: This time we're in it to stay_

_Sarah: Think about seizing the day_

_Jack: Think of that train as she rolls into old Santa Fe  
Tell her I'm on my way_

_Newsies: See old man Pulitzer snug in his bed  
He don't care if we're dead or alive  
Three satin pillows are under his head  
While we're begging for bread to survive  
Joe, if you're still counting sheep  
Wake up and read 'em and weep  
You've got your thugs  
With their sticks and their slugs  
Yeah, but we got a promise to keep  
Once and for all  
Something tells me the tide will be turning  
Once and for all  
There's a fire inside me that won't stop burning  
Now that the choices are clear  
Now that tomorrow is here  
Watch how the mighty will fall  
For once and for all!_

It took all night, but we finally finished printing thousands of fliers. When that had been finished, we slipped bundles of papers to the newsies waiting just outside the window.

"It's awfully nice of Mr. Pulitzer to let us use his press." Denton remarked as we slipped through the window when the last bundle was handed out.

"Yeah, I just hope I get to thank him for it someday." Jack grinned.

For the rest of the morning, we spread out and went around the whole of New York, handing the papers out to various workers and families.

_Newsies: This is for kids shining shoes on the streets  
With no shoes on their feet everyday  
This is for guys sweating blood in the shops  
While their bosses and cops look away  
This is to even the score  
We ain't just newsies no more  
This ain't just kids with some pie in the sky  
This is do it or die  
This is war!  
Once and for all  
We'll be there to defend one another  
Once and for all  
Every kid is a friend  
Every friend a brother  
Five thousand fists in the sky  
Five thousand reasons to try  
We're going over the wall  
Better to die than to crawl  
Either we stand or we fall  
For once  
Once and for all!_

* * *

** AN: I can't believe I'm already almost done with this story! Sorry if it seems a little rushed; I was somewhat in a hurry to get it finished. Reviews, please!**


	14. Chapter 14: Unfinished Business

** This is the next to last chapter of the story. It's been great to work with this story. I've given my roommate a bit of grief along the way, and that one night when I stayed up until almost four in the morning was just massive chaos. Oddly enough, though, I'm glad that I got to work with this story. Enjoy =D**

** Disclaimer: Any of the characters that did not appear in the Newsies movie belongs to me. Everything and everyone else belongs to either history or Disney.**

Chapter 14: Unfinished Business

Time: Early July, 1899

After we finished handing out the papers, we were gathered around the Horace Greeley statue, waiting for the work kids. Denton had left to take care of some business, and so far no one had shown up just yet.

"So, when's the others coming, kid?" Mush asked.

By now, Jack's impatience had gotten the best of him. "They ain't coming. Ain't gonna be nobody but us."

"Come on, Jack."

"Have hope, Jack."

"Momentai, Jack."

We worked hard to get his spirits back up, but the majority of us felt let down as well. Perhaps the article hadn't worked after all. Les walked away from the group with Ginny and Charlie, looking up at Pulitzer's office.

"_When the circulation bell starts ringing, will we hear it_?" Les sang.

"Nah." Racetrack joined the kids, wiping the sweat from his brow. "_What if the Delancey's come out swinging, will we hear it_?"

"No!" Les shouted.

Racetrack was proud. "That a boy!"

We joined them, our spirits somewhat higher. We would fight until the bitter end as a team.

_When you've got a million voices singing  
who can hear a lousy whistle blow?  
And the World will know!_

Just then, an entire crowd of workers with signs marched through the streets to join us by the statue, holding strike signs. At another street, Spot Conlon was leading the Brooklyn newsies to us, holding his cane in one hand and one of the papers in another, while shouting "Brooklyn!"

_Newsies & Work Kids: The World will feel the fire and finally know!_

Everyone cheered and shouted "Strike!" as the newsies made their way through the crowd to the front of the World Building. This was just too good; the streets were flooded with newsies and workers alike.

"Dear me!" Racetrack exclaimed, pointing up. "What have we here?"

I looked up to see that a man was standing by the door of Pulitzer's office, a few policemen behind him, looking out into the crowd. "That's not going to stop this crowd from protesting!" I shouted gleefully.

Jack put a hand on my shoulder. "I need you and Davey to come with me, Leah. We gotta voice now, and we're showin' it off to Pulitzer."

I smiled at him as he pulled me forward. "It's Clover now, Jack."

* * *

The man at the door-Seitz, I heard-lead Jack and David and me up to Pulitzer's office. When we were inside, one of the other servants was whispering to him frantically. Ignoring him-we got the gist of what was going on-we stopped in front of Pulitzer's desk, where Jack pulled out a copy of the flyer and set it down in front of the old man himself.

"Extry, extry, Joe." He taunted. "Read all about it."

As Pulitzer examined the paper, I got a good look at the man we had fought against for half a month. I noted that he would've looked like a nice old grandfather if he weren't so greedy.

"I promised that if you defied me, I'd break you." Pulitzer growled in a low voice. I frowned; I had known before this adventure that Jack would betray the newsies (and it hurt more than I figured it would), but I didn't know that he had been threatened into doing so. "I'll keep that promise, boy. Now, I gave you a chance to be free. I don't understand. Anyone who doesn't act in their own self interest is a fool."

"Then what does that make you?" David asked from right next to me.

That was when Pulitzer noticed us standing behind Jack.

"Oh, these is my pals, Davey and Clover." Jack introduced us.

"You talk about self interest, but since the strike, your circulation's been down seventy percent." David informed Pulitzer. "Everyday you're losing thousands of dollars just to beat us out of one lousy tenth of a cent. Why?"

"It's not about the money, David." I answered for Pulitzer. "If Mr. Pulitzer gives in to people like us, it means we have the power."

"And he can't do that, no matter what it costs." Jack finished for me. "Are we right, Joe?"

Pulitzer appeared to not have heard us. "I sent for the police. They must be here by now. Send them in, Seitz."

"That's not going to stop anyone from protesting against you!" I protested. David and Jack didn't even stop me; both of them knew for a fact that I was right. "Just look outside! Listen to that cry for justice! You can't stop even one of us without inciting a riot!"

"I'm not going back to jail, Joe." Jack agreed with me, going up to the window. I frowned at the shared name between Joseph Pulitzer and my friend back home. "Look out here. Right out here is where the power is."

Jack opened the window, and the chants of "Strike!" were so loud that Pulitzer had to cover his ears.

"Close the window!" He shouted. "Close the window! Go home! Go home! Go home!"

"I can't hear you, Joe!" Jack shouted.

"Go home!" Pulitzer shouted out the window. "Go home to your mothers and fathers! Go home!"

"I don't hear ya!"

"Now you listen to me!"

"Maybe you should listen!"

"No, no! You listen to me!"

"No! You listen!"

"Close the window and shut up!"

"There's a lot of people out there and they ain't just gonna go away!" Jack shouted. "They got voices now and they're goin' be listen to. Putting them in jail is not going to stop them! That's the power of the press, Joe." It wasn't until then when he closed the window and Pulitzer uncovered his ears. "So thanks for teaching me about it."

"Those kids put out a pretty good paper there Chief." Seitz pointed out.

Pulitzer picked up the paper and read it again. "I ordered a printing ban on all strike matters. Now, who defied me? Who's press did you use to print this on? Who's?"

Now this was what Jack was obviously waiting for, and I could tell that he was trying hard to fight a smile. "Well, we only use the best, Joe." He said. "So, I just want to say, thanks again."

* * *

Jack and I followed David out through the gates not long after that. Spot and Les were at the front, and pointed us out when they saw us.

The newsies gathered around and started asking questions. Upon Jack's request, David and I didn't say anything. Better to let everyone find out at once. Jack bent over and whispered in Les's ear. After that, Jack lifted him up onto his shoulders and shouted the news to everyone.

"We beat 'em!"

The crowd cheered. All the newsies hugged and patted each other on the back as Weasel, Oscar and Morris put on their hats and left. Ahead, I noticed that Charlie was cheering from Racetrack's shoulders, and Ginny was shouting from Kid Blink's.

Just then, a paddy wagon pulled up, with Snyder sitting in the front seat with two cops.

Les noticed them too. "Jack! Jack, it's the bulls!"

Jack set Les back down on the ground, and made to run. However, he was stopped by Denton.

"Jack, it's over. No, no. You don't have to run. Not anymore. Not from the likes of him. Come on, Come on."

Jack took nervous steps as Denton led him closer to the wagon. It turns out that Denton was right; we didn't have to worry about Snyder anymore. A cop opened the paddy wagon and a group of kids came out, looking as though they hadn't seen the sun in weeks. The last one to come out-to our excitement-was Crutchy. A cop led Snyder into the paddy wagon, but not before we overheard Crutchy say something to Snyder.

"Ah, remember what I told ya, Mr. Snyder." He said with the widest smile on his face. "The first thing ya do in jail, make friends with the rats. Share what you got in common."

Charlie's and Ginny's mouths dropped when they heard the words come out of Crutchy's mouth. Knowing all too well what their opinion of that remark was, I pinched my nose bridge with a small smile on my face. "I give up."

Snyder climbed into the wagon, his hands cuffed behind his back. Crutchy said something to a police officer, who nodded. Wordlessly, Crutchy handed his crutch to a kid, slammed the door in Snyder's face, and locked it. He got his crutch back as the crowd cheered and went over to us.

"You won't be seeing much of him anymore." Denton replied with a grin. "Say good-bye Warden."

"Bye Warden!" We shouted as the carriage took him away.

"Oh, Jack, you ought tah seen it!" Crutchy exclaimed excitedly. "He comes stormin' into the Refuge waving his walking stick like a sword and he's leading in this army of lawyers and cops…"

"Who comes stormin' in?" Jack asked.

"You know, your friend." Crutchy said simply, pointing his crutch to another carriage in the crowd. "Him! Teddy Roosevelt!"

It was the big man himself, smiling warmly and waving at the people in the crowd around his carriage. The newsies were amazed, and many of us did double takes. And even though neither of my cousins knew much about Teddy Roosevelt, it was obvious that they were in awe of the man as well.

"The Governor's very grateful that you brought this problem to his attention." Denton explained to Jack. "I said you might need a lift somewhere. He'd be happy to oblige. Anywhere you want. And this time, you ride inside."

"So, can he drop me at the train-yards?" Jack asked.

I knew all too well what was going to happen next, and I couldn't take it. I took off and climbed up to the roof of a building close to the distribution center, tears stinging my eyes. From the roof, I watched as the newsies made their way to Roosevelt's carriage. Jack shook his hand and climbed in, smiling. Everyone followed the carriage away…except for the Jacobs and my cousins, who watched sadly.

Half an hour later, I was still on the roof when the circulation bell started ringing. I wasn't ready to go back to selling newspapers just yet, so I stayed up on the roof and watched the city. The newsies lined up for their papers, with David at the front. He put a coin down and made his order. And not long after that, we heard cheering. I watched as Roosevelt's carriage returned to the street, right in front of the distribution center.

I raced back down the stairs just in time to see Jack shaking Roosevelt's hand again. "Thanks for the advice, Governor." He was saying. "Like you said, I still got things to do. Besides, I got family here."

He got out of the carriage and gave Les his cowboy hat. All the newsies were yelling and talking at once, but Jack didn't speak until he saw David. "So, how's the headline today?" He asked.

"Headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes." David responded, putting on his newsboys cap and taking his pile of newspapers before joining Jack. He smiled and actually spit in his hand before shaking Jack's.

It was then where Jack turned to me. "You say I once called the newsies me brudders, Clove." He said. "I still do, and I always will."

I smiled a little, but turned away when Sarah managed to reach Jack; I knew all too well what was going to happen then. The newsies' cheering and yelling told me all too well about the passionate kiss that was being shared.

Moments later, the carriage pulled away once more, with Roosevelt and Spot in it. Spot tipped his hat and waved as he rode away. David, Jack, Sarah, Les, Ginny, Charlie and Crutchy followed the carriage. Denton was shaking David's hand before going to the side and starting to write. The newsies followed them out, singing a chorus of "Carrying the Banner."

I didn't leave with anyone. I watched as the newsies continued on, and I wondered what was going to happen next. I figured that everything would become clear and that we would go home some time soon…but we were still here. And none of us had a clue of how we were going to get back.

I wasn't sure of a lot of things at the moment, but as I looked back on Jack's words to me and to Roosevelt, I finally understood exactly why he delayed his dream for Santa Fe. It wasn't just his love for Sarah; it was his love for his whole family. Everyone who called him a friend-the newsies, Denton, the Jacobs family, Spot Conlon, Medda-they were all the family that he always wanted deep down inside.

* * *

A month had gone by since the end of the strike, and I was beginning to see the normal routine of the newsies. Wake up, sell papers, eat lunch, sell more papers/hang out, eat dinner, hang out, and go to bed. This was the daily ritual, even on Sunday. If it weren't for the dates on the papers, I would've been amazed by how easily the newsies remembered which day of the week and month it was.

Sarah began to visit the lodging house more often, mostly to see Jack. I left the room and went out onto the roof every time they were together; their togetherness was becoming too much for me. No one asked me why; they remembered my outburst about Joey when Jack betrayed us, and no one said anything more about it…except for one person.

Spot Conlon was cordial almost every day. He usually joined me out on the roof whenever Sarah was around, mostly to talk about Joey or other things going on back home in Michigan. I was relieved to know that Spot didn't actually have a crush on me as Jack believed; he just wanted to know how much of a newsie I could be, and if I could be trusted by the newsie world. Sometimes, when he visited in the afternoons, we would have small fights just to keep each other on our toes. It had been a while since I had fought with anyone who wasn't actually trying to hurt me, and it honestly felt really good.

Needless to say, I was beginning to miss Grand Rapids after a while. There were times when I wondered if we would ever go back. I never got the chance to say good-bye to anyone, and if we stayed for the rest of our lives then I never would receive that chance. If I were lucky (which Jack still debated that I was), I'd be able to get a glimpse of my great-grandparents and grandparents as children, and that was all. And then I remembered that I would miss the newsies if we did go back, and the odds of seeing them again were just as slim as the chances of going back.

I was about to give up any hope of returning home until early August, when Manhattan was having a party at Medda's to celebrate the one month anniversary of the strike, as well as Charlie's tenth birthday. Brooklyn was there too, ironically enough; Spot told me he was coming just because he was simply the King of the newsies. I wasn't much for partying, so I stayed up at the balcony to read some stories from an old Bible that had been given to me from one of the other newsies.

I was reading the middle of the book of Esther, when her relative Mordecai was trying to convince her to go to the king and plead for the sake of her people, the Jews, even though there was a law that said no one was to go to the king without his summons. I knew the story all too well; the king had spared her life and helped rescue the Jews from their impending persecution. There was a quote from Mordecai, though, that I hadn't noticed until reading it through at this go-round: "who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

It was at that point where I noticed something a little different about the doors leading to the theater. Did they just shine a little? Curious, I put a bookmark in the place where I had just finished reading and made my way down to the entrance of the theater. I looked through the door...only to find that I was looking at my basement instead of the streets of New York. It was our ticket home!

I wasn't sure of how or why it had appeared then, but I knew for a fact that my cousins and I had to go back as soon as we could. I didn't go back in right away, though. How was I going to tell the newsies that we couldn't come back to New York? I couldn't tell them that I was from the future, that was for sure. And I also knew that, if they knew that we couldn't ever come back, then they would never let us leave.

With a heavy heart, I sighed and walked back to the party, where Ginny and Charlie were waiting for me.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked me. "You look a little depressed."

I sighed once more. "Come on, you two. It's time to go home."

The newsies, who were all listening in (this became a habit of theirs after a while) were all talking among themselves. Ginny and Charlie looked at me sadly.

"Do we have to?" Charlie asked.

"Momentai." I said with a smile. "You'll see them again in time. That's my gut feeling, at least." I couldn't tell either of them how unlikely it was that they would be coming back if I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be.

"That's right, Chuck." Mush said encouragingly, hugging Charlie. "You three can come to visit us here in New York when you're old enough to travel on your own."

"And Clover will be back when she has her parents' approval, right?" Jack pointed out, turning to me.

I bit back tears, nodding my head; they had to let us go. I would never forget these newsies, even if my life depended on it. I looked at each and every one of them before continuing. "I want to thank all of you." I said as the tears slowly spilled from my eyes. "Each of you have been like brothers-and sister-" I added to Sarah, "-to me. I learned a lot from working with the newsies, and I'm so grateful for the amazing two months that I've been here with each and every one of you."

One by one, my cousins and I approached each newsie and said our personal good-byes.

"Thanks for helping me with my cousins." I said when I reached Mush.

"Any time." He said when he hugged me. "I just wish I coulda done it more."

"Thank you so much for being a good example to Ginny and Charlie, and for not calling me 'doll face'." I said to Crutchy when I reached him.

"Aw, shucks." Crutchy blushed.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your hat." I said to Skittery, giving him back his cap. He didn't say much, but he didn't have to; I knew that he would miss me as much as I missed him.

"You did a great job helping Jack lead the strike." I said to David.

"So did you." David said. "I just wish that we could do more to help you."

"Momentai." I said back to him.

"I still say ya woulda made a great newsie, doll." Spot said when I reached him.

I didn't even roll my eyes at the name. "Who knows? Maybe I'll write stories about you guys and have them published."

"Just be sure to get the story and my name right."

"Sure thing, Conlon." I said into his shirt as I hugged him. "Sure thing."

Finally, there was Jack.

"You think Joey will be with you when you come back?" He asked me.

"Maybe someday, Jack." I said. "Maybe someday."

"Just don't wait too long, Clover." Sarah said from behind me.

"And for what it's worth, you're sure as hell the luckiest newsie alive." Jack replied.

I rolled my eyes one last time at his choice of words, but smiled anyway. "Thank you, Jack."

When our good-byes were said, I held hands with my cousins once more. I turned back to the boys with a teary smile and said "Momentai. I'll be watching over you when I go."

"Carrying the banner." Ginny and Charlie chanted.

"Carrying the banner." They said back, their hats off their heads and over their chests in respect.

I smiled again before I turned back around. Hand in hand, we walked out of the lobby and back into the world of 2012.

**AN: WOW, this was a hard chapter to write. Sorry if it's a bit rushed and a tad cliche, but I was trying to get it all in one chapter and it was getting a bit longer than I was used to writing.**

** I'm not planning to write a sequel to this story, simply because it drove me crazy at times. However, if I do get enough positive reviews and if enough people ask me to write a sequel I'll think about it and see what I can do this summer.**

** Anyways, this story is not finished just yet. I'll have the final chapter up in about a week. Until then, reviews are nice and I'll see you all in a week!**


	15. Chapter 15: Epilogue

**AN: It took me SO LONG to figure out how I was going to go about this epilogue. It took a while, but I hope I've done alright. I hope you like it =D**

** Disclaimer: If you recognize any character names from the movie in this chapter, then I don't own them.**

Chapter 15: Epilogue

Time: June 22, 2012

When we walked through the door, it was as though everything had returned to normal. The storm was still going outside, and yet nothing had changed. The lights were still out, so the power was still down, as it was when we left.

"Ginny, can you help me find the flashlight?" I asked.

"I'll help too." Charlie piped.

I looked at him…or where I thought his voice came from, it was too dark to be able to see him. "Aren't you usually afraid of the dark, Charlie?"

"Not anymore." Charlie said nonchalantly.

"You know Chuck, I think you've been around the newsies a little too long." Ginny teased.

I smiled and laughed. "I guess it was a good thing we went, then. Your parents will be proud."

It was then that the power went back on. The clock on the old DVD player read around ten fifteen; around the time where we left. Ginny was right, in a sense; our adventure was a lot like the Chronicles of Narnia. No time had gone by at all since we left, it was through a closet door…the only difference was that no magic had been involved with where we went, other than how we got there. Or was it just a miracle that took us there?

"One question, though." Ginny said. "How are we going to explain how Charlie was brave enough to soak scabs and the fact that he's not afraid of the dark anymore?"

"That's your only question?" I asked, laughing. "How am I going to tell your parents exactly where you learned the words 'scab', 'soak', 'carrying the banner', and 'bulls'?"

Charlie shrugged. "So? What's your point?"

It was then that my cell phone rang. I had left it by my flashlight on the old couch when we left. I walked over and answered.

"Mom?"

"Leah, are you alright?" She asked. It had been so long since anyone at least thirteen years old had called me Leah. "Jana's mother and I went to the bridal shower and saw that there would be a tornado alert all over Grand Rapids. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mom. There is a tornado warning, but we all went down to the basement when the siren went off. We're alright, Mom."

I wasn't exactly sure of how we would know that it would be okay to go back upstairs, and I had forgotten to ask mom when she called. Instead, we wound up spending the night in the basement watching movies until we fell asleep. We woke up when the sun rose-which was just a bit earlier than we expected. It surprised me that my mom was okay with us spending the night in the basement; my brother and I taken turns doing it when our bedrooms were being remodeled, but that had been years ago. I guess she really did care about us more than she let on. She did, however, pull me aside before heading to the church to tell me how we know when it's okay to go back upstairs after a tornado warning.

Since my only job as a bridesmaid was to wear a dress without complaining and walk down the aisle on the arm of a guy that I honestly couldn't care that much about, I brought my laptop with me and did some research on what happened to our friends in 1899 after the strike. It took a while, but it helped to do research on people in a New York cemetery. Some of them had gone off to fight in the First World War. Many of them, such as Mush and Skittery survived the war and lived long lives…but others, like Kid Blink and Snitch, left to fight and didn't come back. I was relieved to see that Spot lived a long life. He worked in a factory for a while after he got too old to be a newsie, but that job kept him from fighting in the war when he got injured. He still seemed happy though. But I had to say, I was surprised to learn that Joey was his great-great-great grandson.

For fun, I also did some research on my genealogy. It was hard on the computer, so I had the help of an old scrapbook that my grandmother kept as an heirloom. I was curious and wondering if any of my ancestors had been newsies, but I was extremely surprised to see which newsie I descended from. The oldest ancestor recorded in this scrapbook was that of Esther Kelly, Sarah and Jack's son. Esther Kelly was mine and my cousins' great-great grandmother. Can you believe it?

Unfortunately, I didn't get to find out much about the rest of the newsies, or even my great-great-great grandparents. I wanted to do more research, but that was when Jana went ballistic and yelled for me to get in the dress before she called the hounds-her words, not mine. I rolled my eyes as I did as I was told. What was it with brides on their wedding day?

The dress she had me wear wasn't actually half bad. It was a deep sapphire blue, only slightly ruffled. It bunched up around me to make me look thinner-even without the corset like pathetic excuse for an undergarment that Jana begged me to use again-and the skirt billowed out, much like a mermaid dress. I wasn't as beautiful as Jana-which was a relief, since the bridesmaids aren't supposed to be prettier than the bride-but it was so simple that I loved it.

The ceremony went along exactly as it should. My brother was happily married, I now had a sister, and to my relief Ginny and Charlie had kept their new vocabulary to themselves. Well...either that, or I would have a lot of explaining to do to their parents when the reception was over.

Now we were at the reception, which was just across the hall from where the ceremony took place. Everyone was either talking or swing dancing or hanging at the buffet. I sat at one of the tables, watching the gentle rain falling outside the window of the church. I wondered what adventures lay ahead for my cousins if they could go back to the Newsies' time. I closed my eyes and remembered the chorale we sang on the second day we soaked the scabs.

"_Open the gates and seize the day. Don't be afraid and don't delay. Nothing can break us, no one can make us give our rights away…arise and seize the day…"_

"Hey, Leah."

I was broken out of my thoughts when a chair slid behind me. I opened my eyes and turned around to see Joey sitting next to me at my table, smiling brightly. I had forgotten that he and his brother were good friends of Peter's.

"Hey, Joey." I smiled as my friend sat next to me. "Enjoying the reception?"

"Yeah." Joey laughed. "Your brother's been trying to convince me to join the gospel choir next semester."

I joined him in laughing. "Ah, Pete. You gotta love him."

It did not escape my attention that Joey was wearing a tux, and _dang, _he looked good. His light brown hair had been trimmed a bit, and his eyes were glowing more than usual. "You look very snazzy tonight." I said to him.

"Why thank you." He said to me. "And you look very beautiful tonight, fair lady."

I nearly winced, but I contained myself. That was the third time he used that word to describe me. It would be a while before I got used to it.

"Thanks." I said, my smile half plastered to my face as I watched my brother's friends and family on the dance floor. "It doesn't surprise me that he and Jana chose swing music for the wedding reception; as far as I know, that's the only kind of dancing that they've ever done together."

"I like it." Joey said. "I'm really into Jazz music."

I nodded; I almost forgot that Joey had played for the Jazz band in high school.

"Well, what about you?" Joey asked me. "Do you like to swing dance?"

I shrugged. "I learned a little bit, but I never really got a chance to put it to practice, so I forgot after a few years. Peter and Jana took me to a swing dancing event so that I could learn again, but they set me up with someone I didn't know very well, and it was awkward."

"Well, maybe I could teach you again."

I gave him a look that was similar to the one I gave Jack when he took me to meet Spot Conlon. "You sure you wanna do that? Do you even realize how clumsy I am whenever my feet touch anything that resembles a dance floor? No no; do you even realize how clumsy I am, _period_?"

Joey laughed. I smiled to myself; I liked the sound of his laughter. "No beautiful lady should be alone on a beautiful night such as this."

"That may be," I joined in as we stood, "but if you want to dance then no handsome young man should dance alone at a wedding, good sir."

We wound up dancing together for the rest of the reception. And while we were dancing, I realized that Jack and I were similar in a sense; we both wanted to have an adventure, and at the same time we just wanted to be loved by a family. Until the last day of the strike, Jack didn't think he had a family; his mother was dead, and for all he knew his father was in prison. As for me, I didn't think that my family would be willing to accept the fact that they had an outcast for a fourth member. Just as Jack realized how much he was loved by the newsies, it was today where I realized how much I was loved by my family and friends. And in a sense, I saw Joey in a different light as we danced; throughout the time where I knew him, he and I had gotten at least as close as brother and sister. With that in mind, I knew that, no matter what happened with Joey, there would always be a special bond between us. The thought kept me smiling as we danced the night away.

**AN: Yep. That's the end of the story. I was tempted to have Joey and Leah actually become a couple, but since I've never been in a relationship before I don't exactly have enough experience to be able to write a scene like that. I am pleased with how the epilogue turned out, and I hope that you all enjoyed it too. Special thanks to everyone who left me reviews and subscribed to me; it means a lot, and you guys are just plain awesome!**

** One more thing: I know that the epilogue was a little short, so I decided to leave kind of a preview for my next story, which I will begin posting once it has been completely finished.**

** Story: Super Smash Brothers  
**

** Title: Kindred Spirits  
**

** Rating: T  
**

** Genre: Mystery/Friendship**

** Description: Arieda is no stranger to betrayal. When her younger brother is kidnapped and the police have no leads, she runs away from home to find him, trusting no one as she makes her journey. But what happens when her journey takes her into the world of a video game?  
**

**Preview**

_The characters of the game have shared a bond_

_Until this day, with a flick of a wand  
_

_No one knows, no one sees  
_

_Exactly why the time will freeze  
_

_In the games, the battles go  
_

_Never ending till the final blow  
_

_Now the fights go on to the next level  
_

_Everlasting like a devil  
_

_Xenon travels between the worlds we know  
_

_Taking with it the people who glow  
_

_These friends and rivals are no normal foes  
_

_In this world, they deliver the same blows  
_

_Maybe they are like the brothers,  
_

_Each week on Sunday we'll know this and others  
_

**AN: Well, there's the preview of the prologue. The first chapter will be posted at the same time when the story is finished.**

**Until then,**

**~leah61909~  
**


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